White — Volume 63, Issue 5

While Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is celebrated as a triumph for workers' rights, this article contends that the statute has fundamentally undermined class solidarity and enhanced employer control. The author traces how Title VII evolved from concerns about individual discrimination to institutionalize a system of bureaucratic control that prioritizes individual rights litigation over collective worker organization. Drawing on labor history and class analysis, White demonstrates how Title VII's emphasis on discrete worker classifications inadvertently excludes marginalized workers and forecloses collective remedies. The article argues that Title VII's codification in seniority rules and harassment doctrine has paradoxically benefited employers by fragmenting worker solidarity and channeling disputes into individual litigation. Rather than advancing genuine workplace equality, Title VII has entrenched hierarchical employer control while marginalizing class-based alternatives like unionization. The author challenges liberal and progressive defenders of Title VII to acknowledge how the statute's individualist framework subordinates class solidarity to identitarian concerns.

Topics: Labor & Employment · Civil Rights

Keywords: Title VII · workplace discrimination · class solidarity · employer control · seniority rules · labor law · individual rights