> Sounds like they are taking steps to make sure whoever was chosen for layoffs were not chosen for racist reasons. that would have been illegal either way. Re

> Sounds like they are taking steps to make sure whoever was chosen for layoffs were not chosen for racist reasons. that would have been illegal either way. Really there are two options here: Either they did something questionable and want to deflect (like being racist against white people. I'm not saying this is the case but it is a possibility), or they want to get a pat on the back for not breaking the law. It's one of those sentences that immediately puts your mind to why it was placed in there: "[..] so we were particularly focused on ensuring our layoffs – while a business necessity today – were carried out without clubbing any seals." Why would one say that? Why does one explicitly mention this? To what gain? Either you want brownie-points for something that should be a given, or you want to get ahead of something.