Ok. Not a lawyer. Not legal advice. Just a guy who's been around.

You might have a chance (small chance) to turn their own game against them. But it is highly unlikely. Like infinitely unlikely. Nevertheless, here are some lines of thought that most employers, regulators, administrators, and lawyer-types think about.

In recent years, administrative agencies and courts have used a statistical test to determine if bias or discrimination is present in an employer as to acts of hiring, firing, promotion, pay, etc. They look to see what is the racial composition within a certain distance of the employer (say, what is the racial composition of the city in which the employer is located) and then they compare that external racial composition to the internal racial composition of the employer.

In other words, if the community around the employer is 60% black but the employer worker population is 60% white, then the statistical disparity is taken as evidence of discrimination EVEN IF no specific acts of discrimination can be proved. That statistical test may be enough of a basis to initiate an action for the aggrieved party (in this scenario, the aggrieved party is the excluded 60% black population around the employer), but such a statistical test is a long long way from prevailing in a cause of action. I know this is not the scenario you are considering but you get the idea how some of the thinking goes.

So to look at it from the other direction, hiring a handful of minority candidates into a company that is 70% white does not prove discrimination against whites. Indeed, failing to redress a racial imbalance may imperil the company legally, socially, and otherwise.

Individual hiring decisions are inherently complex and variable and even if a company says they are using affirmative action to promote minority hiring it does not cross a legal line as an aggregate proposition. The more salient proposition for you is if you specifically, as an individual, are being discriminated against. You individually may end up in a situation where you are discriminated against but that doesn't prove the company as a whole is discriminatory.

So, to turn the game against them, you would have to gather all the statistical analysis you can, covering a period of years, that reveals the various employment patterns are inherently, statistically, discriminatory againt whites and that you are part of that class and you have suffered specific injuries because of it and have standing to sue. Whew. That's a whole lot of "nuh-uh that ain't never gonna happen". Sorry. Just saying the deck is incredibly stacked against you.

There's another wrinkle here. If the employer has any federal business, any federal contracts, then you can file a complaint with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCC). That office conducts regular audits and can audit any time it chooses to any employer performing a federal contract. And they look at the whole company, not just the proportion of the company that is covered by the contract. An OFCC audit scares the shit out of companies because some nasty things can happen as a result of a failed audit, not to mention the loss of the federal contract. Federal law prohibits racial discrimination (although it is usually used to favor minorities). Nevertheless, the mere threat of being accused of discrimination can be enough to scare the management into playing nice. You willing to throw the dice? You willing to become visible as the complainant? Ready to feel the scorching sun of a thousand angry lawyers coming after you? Cuz they will. Oh, yeah.

Having said all that, the odds are hugely, humonguously, infinitely stacked against you as a single individual, white, male, middle aged or over, of prevailing in any sort of action. That's why a lawyer won't touch this. Unless you have deep pockets and don't care how much you spend (millions). If it was easy to prevail, it would be happening all across the country in all sorts of industries (e.g., fired engineer from company "name rhymes with Poogle"). The burden of proof now is not on the company to prove they are not discriminatory. The burden of proof is on the complainant to prove there are concrete acts of discrimination. And companies have a million ways from Sunday to slide around that issue.

It's complicated.

Your best bet is to document yourself and ask for documents commending your good work, attendance, attitude, all that. Keep all your performance reviews. Keep any emails your bosses send you that says you do a good job. Keep records of all training, formal and informal. Keep records of all pay actions you receive or do not receive (if the merit pool for pay increases is 4% and you get 2% - document that). Immediately address any performance deficiencies pointed out to you and try to get a document or email that says you have satisfied the deficiency.

Play smart. Never complain or argue about perceived discrimination. Rather, couch your conversation in terms of how much more you want to do for the good of the company and how you especially want to work on diverse teams and to mentor anybody new coming in who needs a little extra support. Get that all nicely documented, it's a bit of a firewall you may be able to use later if you get accused of being hostile to minority new hires. Make it very very hard for them to discriminate against you when it comes time for promotion or pay decisions.

Never use any company equipment, like computers or phones or chat channels, to say or do anything that suggests you are working on a complaint or that you are soliciting others to join in a complaint. Do all that shit far off campus and do it like James Bond or Ed Snowden. Everything you say and do is discoverable in a lawsuit, and they will come after you rather than lose to you and allow a precedent to be set (which could be used against them again in the future ad infinitum).

My best advice is to live your best life, follow your heart, be ready to move on at any time and start over or jump ahead a little bit. Life is way way way too short to get caught up in litigation. Never burn bridges. Never bad mouth a previous employer.

There's an old saying, "You marry your wife, but you are only engaged to your job". Keep your interest in your employer or in your role very very light and be ready to let it go at a moment's notice. You owe nothing to your employer except a fair day's work for a fair wage. Other than that, let it go. They, in turn, will owe you nothing, and will cut you loose with or without cause at any time. Life is full of very unfair situations.

The feeling of owning your own life and the feeling of peace of mind is worth far more than you could ever gain monetarily from litigation. I feel your grievance. I hate discrimination as much as the next Jane or Joe. Just focus on you and let the rest of the world worry about themselves. Good luck, fren.