Promotions at Uptown Bottling and Canning Company

Case Analysis

The majority of racial discrimination cases are very difficult to analyze. The case of “promotion at uptown Bottling and Canning Company” is not the exception. The key points that I found to study in this case are the ration of management positions offered between black and white employees, the time when Grant applied for the open position and was granted to Thompson and the leadership potential excuse that Grant was given when the company denied him for the promotion.

First the demographics of the city where the company is located at shows diversity totally different from the diversity of management positions given in the company. Baltimore city is more than 50 percent African American and the surrounding metropolitan region is about 25 percent African American. With the demographics existing in Baltimore, the fact that only 4 out of 41 promotions were given to black employees over the past 9 years is suspicious. This pattern is consistent with the statistics that 1 out of seven management positions in the United States are held by African Americans. Therefore, there are some consisting inclinations to offer management positions to white employees in the most part.

Second there was an open management position in which Grant applied. The desired qualifications were of at least 5 years of experience and an undergraduate degree. At the time of the selection, a white male, named Thompson, was offered the position and he did not have the qualifications that Grant had. Thompson did not even have an undergraduate degree. The statistics say that a significant racial gap in unemployment is a consistent pattern in the United States with the gap now greatest for college educated African American males.