Despite everything -- including a $175 million fine -- corporate America continues to operate in a sort of apartheid atmosphere. There may be a few more black faces, writes PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson, but white males are still calling all the shots. Hutchinson is the author of The Crisis in Black and Black. email:ehutchi344@aol.com

In 1996, officials of the Texaco Corporation were recorded on tape making derogatory remarks about blacks -- remarks that cost the company $175 million.

This was the largest employment discrimination settlement ever, and many believed it would send a powerful and lasting message -- if corporations discriminate they will have to pay, and pay dearly.

But three years later it is clear that many still have not got the message.

The 1996 incident triggered an avalanche of charges from present and former black employees claiming that Texaco gave them the worst assignments, lower pay, and fewer chances for promotions than whites. They slapped the company with a colossal lawsuit, and shamefaced Texaco officials quickly caved in.

But recently black employees and former employees -- again charging discrimination in assignments, pay and promotion -- filed a lawsuit against Coca Cola in Atlanta, got a trial date for a suit against the Seven Up/RC bottler in Los Angeles, and won millions in a judgment against Hyundai Semiconductor in Oregon.

Company executives at Coke, Seven-Up, and Hyundai angrily deny practicing any discrimination. Like most major corporations, they issue flowery press releases, brochures, and annual stockholder reports boasting of their commitment to employee diversity. On paper they appear to be complying with Federal Equal Opportunity guidelines with well-established programs for hiring, training, and promotion of minorities, black faces in visible management positions, and even a few on their boards of directors.

Indeed many blacks have made gains in corporate America. They are not barred or discouraged from participating in company social functions. Some are included in discussions of important business decisions -- some even join the country clubs where much of America's corporate business and deal-making is done. These days, few corporate officials fan the flames of racial hostility by telling whites they can't be hired because the firm must make a place for a (less qualified) woman or a minority. Many corporations have stopped repeating the tired line that they can't find "qualified" black applicants and have active minority recruiting programs.

But the very small numbers of blacks that have cracked the corporate glass ceiling tell a story less of corporate progress than of corporate apartheid. There are still only a handful of black CEOs at the Fortune 1000 corporations. Nearly ten out of ten senior managers are white males. Black managers make up less than ten percent of the total managerial positions for all races and earn, on average, less than their white counterparts.

And as the recent discrimination lawsuits against the three companies show, many corporate managers and employees continue to regard blacks as pariah -- lazy, undisciplined, poorly organized, incompetent affirmative action hires, with bad attitudes, outspoken and rebellious, and quick to blame management (or white employees) for any problems or failures.

These stereotypes are reinforced by an insular corporate culture in which mostly white, male managers are responsible for implementing company policy and directives -- they make the performance evaluations, organize training and mentoring, and make crucial job assignments.

These men demand strict conformity to middle-class norms -- and feel threatened by anyone who doesn't share those interests. This leads to a them-vs.-us siege mentality which, in turn, bolsters the belief of many blacks that they are held to a different standard than whites and must continually prove they can be team players.

Often, particular departments or divisions within one company are top-heavy with black employees and managers while others are virtually lily-white. This reflects a tracking system in which corporate managers instantly identify certain individuals as "go getters" and a" good company person" and put them on the fast track. Blacks are seldom typed that way, and years later many still find themselves in dead-end jobs, or stacked into the corporate ghetto with positions such as director (or vice president) of community relations, equal employment or human resources -- or oversee "special" (black or minority) markets. These positions keep them away from access to vital internal company information and decision-making.

It took lawsuits, boycott threats, and calls for stock divestment to force Texaco and other corporations to take some public steps to clean up their discriminatory act. Three years after the Texaco victory, many black employees must still take such actions to break down the barrier of corporate apartheid.