ANALYZE THE SITUATION

JETTA WONG IS THE owner and manager of the Golden Dragon oriental restaurant. The restaurant is large, inexpensive, and enjoys an excellent reputation. Business is good, and the restaurant serves a diverse clientele.

Ms. Wong places a classified ad for the table busser in the employment section of her local newspaper. The response is good, and Ms. Wong narrows the field of potential candidates to two. One is the same ethnic background as Ms. Wong and the rest of the staff. The second candidate is Danielle Hidalgo, the daughter of a Mexican citizen and an American citizen. Ms. Hidalgo was born and raised in the United States.

While both candidates are pleasant, Ms. Wong offers the position to the candidate who matches the background of the restaurant and

Ms. Wong. Her rationale is that, since both candidates are equal in ability, she has a right to select the candidate she feels will best suit her business. Because it is an oriental restaurant, Ms. Wong feels diners will expect to see oriental servers and bussers. No one was discriminated against, she maintains, because Ms. Hidalgo was not denied a job on the basis of race, but rather on the basis of what was best for business.

Ms. Wong simply selected her preference from among two equal candidates. Ms. Wong relates her decision to Ms. Hidalgo.

Ms. Hidalgo maintains that she was not selected because of her Hispanic ethnic background. She threatens to file a charge with the EEOC unless she is offered employment.

Do you think Ms. Hidalgo was denied the position because of her ethnicity?

In the situation described here, does Ms.Wong have the right to consider race as a bona fide occupational qualification?

How should Ms. Wong advertise jobs in the future to avoid charges of discrimination?