Introduction: HUD's Reverse Discrimination (Larry Price v. HUD)

Larry Price, age 57, is white. He had worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for 27 years. He was an exemplary employee.

Price's annual personnel performance ratings at the St. Louis HUD office were all "Outstanding" for at least his final six years. Mr. Price's innovative "Sweat Equity Plan" (which allows home buyers in need to earn the 3% down payment on newly constructed homes) resulted in the HUD St. Louis office receiving a "Best Practice Award".

From HUD's Web Page:
Larry Price (right) at HUD event in 2001

Nonetheless, from 1997 to 2001 Mr. Price was repeatedly passed over for promotion by protected and preferred minorities under the terms of HUD's "affirmative action" program. During this period, a suspiciously small number of white males received any promotions whatsoever, and HUD was actively encouraging those in Mr. Price's age range -- and skin color -- to take early retirement.

See especially
News Updates
Feb. 19, 2004

In 1998 Mr. Price began filing very well-documented complaints about the racially discriminatory treatment to which HUD's St. Louis office was subjecting him.

Larry Price realized that he needed expert legal representation in order to prosecute his discrimination complaints. After being rejected by several of the non-profit advocacy law firms, Mr. Price mortgaged his home and used the funds to hire a "fee for service" lawyer.

In very short order HUD officials were forced to acknowledged (see below) that Mr. Price had a very strong case. In January 2002 HUD reached a financial settlement with Mr. Price:

Mr. Price was awarded a promotion with back pay and interest, plus $141,000 in attorney fees, plus $22,000 for additional attorney fees when HUD was sanctioned for improperly investigating Mr. Price's original discrimination complaint, plus $10,000 in compensatory damages.

Mr. Price and his attorney took depositions from HUD supervisors and managers in order to gather evidence supporting their claim of reverse discrimination. Amazingly, after only six hours of depositions, HUD's attorney stopped the depositions and quickly agreed to a financial settlement with Mr. Price.

The evidence against HUD -- provided by its own managers and supervisors -- was so overwhelming that after listening to their own employees testify for only six hours HUD felt it had no other choice but to reach a settlement.

By reaching a rapid settlement with Mr. Price, HUD accomplished the following goals:

HUD avoided a court battle which very likely they would have lost and which very likely would have resulted in a much higher settlement with Mr. Price.

HUD avoided the possibility -- at least temporarily -- of a precedent-setting legal decision which may have essentially declared all HUD racially preferential employment practices to be illegal (and, ultimately, all such government programs).

HUD hoped to avoid national publicity -- at least temporarily -- regarding its reprehensible anti-white-male employment practices.

HUD's Minority Hiring Record:
(Source: U.S. OPM FY 2003)

Category	Civilian Labor Force %	Agency Work Force %	% +Over hired (-Under hired)
Blacks	6.9	36.6	+430.4%
Hispanics	4.9	7.2	+46.9%
Asian-Pacific Islanders	2.9	3.9	+34.5%
Native Americans	0.5	1.1	+120.0%
Women	54.9	60.6	+10.2%

See OPM Report 2004 for additional details on minority hiring at HUD and other federal agencies.

Almost immediately after winning his settlement, HUD managers retaliated against Mr. Price by giving him extraordinarily distasteful work assignments such as 30 day travel assignments with no provision for flying home on the weekends to maintain his property.

Mr. Price was ultimately forced to retire, but he is currently preparing a legal complaint against HUD for retaliation.

One of Larry Price's co-workers in the St. Louis office was Mr. Dennis Worth. Mr. Worth, also white, was equally disgruntled with HUD's anti-white discrimination, but Dennis Worth was unwilling or unable at that time to risk his own money to join Mr. Price in his fight for equal treatment under the law without regard to race, ethnicity or skin color. Mr. Price went ahead and risked his largest investment -- his home -- to seek justice, and he won that battle.

Recently, however, the Center for Individual Rights, a non-profit advocacy firm, has taken up Mr. Worth's related case in a well-publicized class-action lawsuit on behalf of "all others similarly situated" seeking to enjoin both HUD and the EEOC from giving job preferences to specially-protected, preferred ethnic and racial groups.

It is unlikely that CIR's lawsuit will be of any use to Mr. Price since he no longer works for HUD and therefore can't be a member of the class. But brave individuals like Mr. Price have paved the way for justice for all white males employed by the government, including Mr. Dennis Worth.