Jury: Black Man’s Use of N-Word in Workplace Was Discrimination
In a case that gave a legal airing to the debate over use of the N-word among blacks, a federal jury has rejected a black manager’s argument that it was a term of love and endearment when he aimed it at black employee.
Jurors awarded $30,000 in punitive damages Tuesday after finding last week that the manager’s four-minute rant was hostile and discriminatory, and awarding $250,000 in compensatory damages.
(Employers of mine: call me whatever you like for four minutes, as long as you pay me $280,000 afterwards!)
Popehat has an amusing post mocking how news outlets have turned this jury into an appellate court or legislature, setting blanket rules for the world on how the n-word can be used. Here’s an example of the kind of lede mocked by Popehat:
A federal jury has rejected an argument that the use of the N-word among blacks can be a culturally acceptable term of love and endearment, ruling instead that its use in the workplace is hostile and discriminatory no matter what.
Absurd.
The reason these stories are laughably wrong is the same reason it is difficult to have an opinion on this verdict without seeing the evidence: the jury’s determination is fact-specific, based on facts and circumstances not available to us.
But lack of specifics never prevented blog commenters from having an opinion! So opine away.
(I joke, of course, but there is a legitimate debate that can be had about the topic in general.)
Raaaaacist!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 9/4/2013 @ 8:08 amCriticizing a black person for use of the N-word is racist.
Calling a black person the N-word is racist.
A non-black person noticing and expressing an option on this contretemps? Also racist.
Racist x Racist x Racist = Racist^3
AKA The Perfect Storm Of Racist!!!!!11!
Pious Agnostic (6c0f18) — 9/4/2013 @ 8:12 amI got banned from Twitchy for saying the “n” word once. One time. Not a four minute rant, just the one little niggling time.
Thank God it was just the banning, instead of a six figure judgement.
In the perfect storm of racism to the eleventy!11! I’m gonna batten the hatches and hunker down.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 9/4/2013 @ 8:57 amI get Popehat’s point about the limits of a jury case but legal cases can influence the national debate and our opinions. Is there any doubt that if the jury had said this wasn’t a hostile work environment, it could have triggered serious claims that using the n-word is only racist when done by whites?
DRJ (a83b8b) — 9/4/2013 @ 9:05 amStill being told I’m a racist by a segment of the population who voted 99.96 % for Obama, because of his skin color, it’s kind of like taking dieting advice from Rosie O’Donald.
“What’s that you say about my carbs, Rosie? Yeah, couldn’t hear you with that sandwich in your mouth.”
papertiger (c2d6da) — 9/4/2013 @ 9:11 amTalk about slippery slopes, awarding damages for name calling opens the door for punishing open expression of political dissent.
What’s next, criminal indictments for implied racism?
ropelight (259b34) — 9/4/2013 @ 9:38 ameither the use of the term is insulting and demeaning, or it isn’t.
you can’t use it yourself and yet object to it’s use by others without being a hypocrite: the ongoing use of the word by a large portion of AA community is just another episode of the “crabs in a bucket” pattern of self destructive behavior that has inhibited both their integration into society and advancement in it.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 9/4/2013 @ 9:49 amYou my _________, Patterico!
Colonel Haiku (fb49f6) — 9/4/2013 @ 9:54 amHeh! Way to go! Always call a black person the n-word when you’re firing them. Don’t worry that anyone might think that you had reasons other than poor job performance. Always be sure to call somebody the n-word when you turn them down for the job in the first place, too. Even if they don’t look black, they might be trying to pass. Why did this case even go to trial?
nk (875f57) — 9/4/2013 @ 9:55 amHeck, I can’t even call a lackadaisical worker ‘niggardly’ anymore.
luagha (5cbe06) — 9/4/2013 @ 10:08 amNext thing it will be a crime to use n-word. I don’t mean what “n-word” stands for, I mean actually saying “n-word.”
CrustyB (69f730) — 9/4/2013 @ 10:12 amWell they’re certainly not niggardly with their compensatory damages.
Amphipolis (d3e04f) — 9/4/2013 @ 10:14 am#7, red is right, stay away from it. It’s radioactive. Just don’t say it, dance around it, allude to it, or try to explain it’s use among blacks.
There’s no way whites can approach the subject, even obliquely with niggardly, and come away untainted. Do yourself a favor and don’t poke that hornet’s nest.
ropelight (259b34) — 9/4/2013 @ 10:37 amAt this point, just what difference does it make?
askeptic (b8ab92) — 9/4/2013 @ 10:55 amropelight: i object to both the word’s use by some and to the double standard. either it’s bad all the time or it isn’t.
if it is, no one should get away with using it.
if it isn’t bad, then no one is allowed to complain, ever.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 9/4/2013 @ 11:04 amHe had berated her harshly, saying people who did the things she did were n—rs – a n????? does this, a n//// does that.
Using it, apparently, as meaning ssomething like the phrase “white trash” when the person(s) in question weren’t white.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/4/n-word-plaintiff-gets-another-30k-punitive-damages/
Sammy Finkelman (67ff63) — 9/4/2013 @ 11:52 am#15, red, object all you like, but face facts, some things are wrong, like double standards or Affirmative Action for example, but still have a life of their own and have to be taken into consideration or they’ll bit you in the ass.
Really, it’s up to each of us how we deal with life’s injustices, some brave souls can’t help but to confront them head-on, others think it wise to recognize danger and side step it. Take your pick.
ropelight (259b34) — 9/4/2013 @ 12:36 pmtolerance in the face of evil is a crime.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 9/4/2013 @ 12:50 pmLest us remember that the O.J. Simpson acquittal was justified by Mark Fuhrman having used the n-word in the last 10 years.
A word that blacks use themselves thousands of times every day.
DN (e99153) — 9/4/2013 @ 1:12 pm#18, red, tolerance is the face of intolerance is a virtue.
#19, DN, Fuhrman’s so-called use of the n-word consisted of dialogue he put in the mouth of a character in a novel he’d written and was attempting to get published. That was F Lee Bailey’s great Gotcha! moment, and it discredited Fuhrman’s finding one of OJ’s gloves on the back path he took to sneak back into his house.
ropelight (259b34) — 9/4/2013 @ 3:40 pmMake that tolerance in the face of intolerance is a virtue.
ropelight (259b34) — 9/4/2013 @ 3:43 pmjeeze i want my boss to call me the n-word like yesterday
I bet this is the sort of money what you get where you don’t have to pay taxes on it
I’ve heard tell of such
happyfeet (c60db2) — 9/4/2013 @ 5:05 pmIt’s a practical thing, you guys. You get some mope who sneaks through the employment screening process and then spends all her time goofing off, disrupting the workplace, and demoralizing all the other workers. You remain a perfect gentleman (or lady), document her, and fire her fat heinie. Or fire her fat heinie and document her (past recollection recorded). For the mope in this case, this $280,000.00 was the most she will ever see at one time in her life (even minus the percentage for her lawyers and the IRS). She won the lottery when her boss lost his temper.
nk (875f57) — 9/4/2013 @ 5:16 pmIf I act like a n-word can I use the n-word?
highpockets (6d4364) — 9/4/2013 @ 7:20 pmnot on my planet…tolerating evil is as bad, if not worse, than the evil act itself.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 9/4/2013 @ 11:02 pmIf it’s wrong for person “A” to use it in a public context, then it’s wrong for person “B” to use it in a public context.
This is just not debatable. To claim skin color has ANY effect is to argue in favor of a racist interpretation of the law.
And if you’re gonna argue that, by all means, go ahead. We can certainly push the laws back to 1940 anytime the black community wants to do so. I think they’d be loons but if they want it, it’s not an issue for me.
The other key thing is… am I white or black?
I’m half Italian. In 1959, when my mother brought me, a babe in swaddling clothes, to see my GGparents, my 1870 born Iowa WASP GGF said to her (pardon the word), “You’re not bringing that nigger baby in this house!” … my GGM closed the door on her (I never knew him, he died shortly thereafter, and I never recall my GGM having any issue with me).
I have skin that no rational person would argue is black in the slightest — but obviously by some standards of the past, I’m not white.
Does this mean *I* get to use the N-word, since I was one when I was born?
LOLZ
NBII (afdedb) — 9/5/2013 @ 2:58 amWatchu be talkin’ ’bout, Willis?
Smock Puppet, Gadfy, Racist-Sexist Thug, and Bon Vivant All In One Package (afdedb) — 9/5/2013 @ 3:00 am