Fox News Reportedly Sued By Employees For Racial Discrimination
Considering Trump’s divisive views and Fox News’ support of the president, there’s no surprise that there’s discrimination flowing throughout the company. Tuesday night (March 28), two women, Tichaona Brown and Tabrese Wright of the payroll department accused the network of “top-down racial harassment,” brought in part by longtime comptroller Judith Slater, The Root reports.
The women accused Slater of suggesting that black men are “women beaters” and black people want to physically harm white people. However, Slater’s racially-charged biases didn’t stop there. She reportedly mocked the way that black people mispronounce certain words like “mother,” “father,” “month,” and “ask.” The comptroller even requested that Brown recite the words aloud during a meeting. Wright, payroll coordinator, asserts that Slater questioned whether her three children were “fathered by the same man.”
Allegedly, Slater’s superiors didn’t do much to address the accused behavior before the lawsuit. The lack of admonition for Slater’s conduct generated a hostile work environment with “severe and pervasive discrimination and harassment.” For this reason, the lawsuit names Judith Slater, Fox News and parent company, 21st Century Fox as the defendants.
The company reportedly projected retaliation toward the targeted, Brown and Wright. After Wright spoke out against Slater’s actions, she was transferred from her payroll position to another department on Monday (March 27). The lawsuit notes this move as a demotion, but the company refers to it as a lateral move. It also states that Brown was fired from her payroll manager position on Monday, while the company claims she was still employed Tuesday night.
The company released the following statement in response to the suit: “We take complaints of this nature very seriously and took prompt and effective remedial action before Ms. Brown and Ms. Wright sued in court and even before Ms. Wright complained through her lawyer. There is no place for inappropriate verbal remarks like this at Fox News. We are disappointed that this needless litigation has been filed.”
Although the network considers the lawsuit “needless” and claims they took all the necessary precautions, the Wigdor law firm — Brown and Wright’s representation — rests their confidence in the “good men and women of the Bronx” to “hold Fox accountable for what we believe to be is abhorrent racist conduct, reminiscent of the Jim Crow era.”
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