Race Harassment Case Settled By EEOC Attorneys

In a news release at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/4-8-10c.cfm , attorneys with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that a North Carolina building system company will pay $118,000 to African-American employees who filed charges of racial harassment against the company with the EEOC.  According to the April 8, 2010 EEOC news release, EEOC attorneys brought the racial harassment lawsuit against the company after it had identified at least 12 black employees who had been subjected to racial harassment.  As stated in the news release, EEOC attorneys charged in the race harassment case that black employees were subjected to racial harassment that involved the creation and display of nooses; references to black employees as “boy” and by the “N-word”; and racially offensive pictures such as a picture that depicted the Ku Klux Klan looking down a well at a black man.  In its complaint, the EEOC alleged that company managers not only knew about the harassment and took no action to stop or prevent it, but also that a manager was one of the perpetrators of the harassment. 

Racial harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In this regard, the EEOC is a federal agency which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including workplace racial harassment, and the EEOC filed the race harassment case after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement with the company.

Whether employment related racial discrimination occurs in Beaumont, Conroe, Houston or elsewhere, victims of racial discrimination may contact the EEOC and an attorney to determine if an employment discrimination lawsuit is ultimately appropriate under the particular circumstances and facts of the potential race harassment case.