High Court Rejects Appeal On Racial Slur

A black man in Maryland complained to his employers
about a racial slur that came from a white co-worker
and is fired on the grounds that he was disruptive to
his co-workers. But get this there is an ironic twist to
the story below so after you have read it feel free to
comment on it.


The Supreme Court refused today to put stricter limits on racial slurs in the workplace, turning away an appeal from a black computer technician who was fired shortly after complaining that a white co-worker loudly described a pair of crime suspects as "two black monkeys in a cage." Robert Jordan, the computer technician, was dismissed from his contract job for IBM in suburban Maryland a month after his complaint and was told that he was "being disruptive." Jordan said he found the comment shocking and disgusting and believed his supervisors should reprimand the employee who said it.

But his race-bias lawsuit against IBM exposed the fact that the nation's civil rights laws do not necessarily protect an employee from a racist or sexist slur from a co-worker. Even if Jordan was fired simply for complaining about the racist comment, his employer did not violate civil rights law, a federal judge and the U.S. court of appeals said in dismissing his lawsuit. That's because "an isolated racial slur" does not create a "hostile work environment," the lower court said. "No objectively reasonable person could have believed IBM's office was in the grips of a hostile work environment," said Judge Paul Niemeyer for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, nor was there evidence it was "infected with severe or pervasive" racism.

The full appeals court split 5-5 on the issue last fall, and the dissenters urged the Supreme Court to hear Jordan's appeal. Civil-rights lawyers also filed briefs urging the justices to take up the case. They said the ruling left employees in a "Catch 22 situation." They had been told by managers and by the courts that they should report instances of racism or sexual harassment in the workplace. At the same time, they were vulnerable to being dismissed for making such complaints. Today, the Supreme Court issued a one-line order without explanation, saying Jordan's appeal had been turned down. The incident that led to Jordan's firing took place on the day police captured the two snipers who had terrorized the Washington area in October of 2002. Jordan and several other employees were watching on television when the two suspects, both black men, were shown.





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