The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is designed to eradicate employment discrimination based on a number of protected classes including race, gender, national origin, age religion and disability. One of the furthest reaching protected classes though is race. The commission aims to eliminate discrimination in the forms of unequal employment, development, advancement and treatment. Discrimination cannot be based on the race of the applicant or employee’s spouse. 

I expect that the number of discrimination cases based on the race of a spouse will decrease as the number of American accepting of interracial marriages increase. A recent CNN article states that a record 86% of American’s are not accepting of marriages between blacks and whites. The younger generation of Americans (age 18-37) are the most approving with 97% while only 61% older Americans (age 70+) only approve of interracial marriage. 

I would expect that since more of this Baby Boomer generation is beginning to retire, racial discrimination based on the race of a spouse would decrease since this group would no longer be in the workforce. Since 18-37 year olds are the most accepting of interracial marriage, and this age group is expected to be a larger part of the workforce in coming years, the race of a spouse should be less of an EEOC discrimination issue. Another major reason that I believe that racial discrimination is on the decline is because the article shows that the acceptance of interracial marriage is trending towards being more acceptable by the general public. 

Reference:

Jones, Jeffrey M. "Record-high 86% Approve of Black-white Marriages – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs." Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs. CNN.com, 12 Sept. 2011. Web. 16 Sept. 2011. <http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/12/record-high-86-approve-of-black-white-marriages/>.