Racial Harassment Not Sufficiently Severe And Pervasive To Establish Hostile Work Environment Claim
The alleged racial harassment of African-American employees by their supervisor, in the form of two racial epithets directed at the employees and one racial epithet referring generally to all African-American employees, was not sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the terms of the working environment and create a discriminatorily abusive working environment, as required to establish a prima facie Title VII hostile work environment claim.
Although the employees subjectively perceived
the harassment as sufficiently severe and pervasive to alter the terms of their
employment, and the use of racial epithets was offensive, the use of the
epithets was infrequent, as the three epithets were allegedly used over the
course of a two-month period. Also, the workplace was not permeated with
discriminatory intimidation or insult. The employees did not complain to the
supervisor or upper management about the alleged harassment. Furthermore, there
was no showing of humiliation or physical threats.
Buckhanon v. Huff & Associates Const. Co., Inc.