Agreed with the other answers. The key is WHY you are being paid differently. You can claim that the reason is racially motivated, meaning a Title VII violation, but claiming does not necessarily make it so. The employer is allowed to present a different story, and the judge/ALJ can always like their story better.
I always like flipping the question and see if that changes the answer. Lets say we are on the employer side of things. While we would not necessarily lose a Title VII (EEOC) claim with the facts as presented, we really would like to have a well supported (legal) reason why there is disparate treatment of these two employees. We really would like to have all supporting documentation generated at the time of the decision(s) and have the documentation support a legal reason for the decision(s). A good HR department will review line manager's job actions affecting their employees to ensure that said job actions are supportable should push come to shove. Hopefully prior to implementing the job actions.
There are many legal reasons for disparate treatment, although failure to document the job actions as they occur can greatly weaken possible defense later. Neither the employee or employer are deemed to have their stories inherently more believable then the other party. It is generally not what you claim, but rather what you can support.