I worked for a company that never terminates whites, but in the last 16 months they have terminated 4 Afro-Americans including myself without sufficient reasoning, just a week ago I the whse supervisor tried to terminate a white whse man for insubordination and was told that I could not do this that he would be written up. a week later I am fired and he got promoted to my position does this seem odd? Or am I being Petty?

It could be discrimination ... if there were not valid reasons for terminating the minority persons AND if the treatment given to the minority persons is different than the non-minorities or if the situation is such that it causes minorities to be terminated more often than non-minorities. For example, if the same infraction that caused the termination of the minority person is ignored when it is done by a minority person, it may be considered as discrimination. Another example is if there are lifting requirements to the job that are not required by the job responsibilities, such as lifting 50 pounds, and it causes women to be excluded from the job more than men, it could be discrimination.

You have several options. You can complain within the company of your former employer to the human resources department (if one exists) or up the chain of command (such as your former manager's manager and so on). Or, you may file a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). You can find more about discrimination and filing a complaint alleging the same by looking at the following website: http://www.eeoc.gov.

Let me know if you have any other questions.