White Airline Desk Employee Stated Title VII "Reverse Racism" Claim For Racially-Based Hostile Work Environment
Denying defendant’s motion for summary judgment, a United States District Court held that a white airline desk employee stated a Title VII "reverse racism" claim for a racially-based hostile work environment.
Her complaint alleged several incidents of workplace verbal and physical abuse, including African-American supervisors and coworkers yelling at her in front of other employees and customers, mocking her during her annual review, throwing a stapler at her, hitting her with a baggage cart, tossing her badge at her, and berating her when she complained. She also alleged having received a threatening telephone call from a work number telling her that "if she came back to work she was dead" and three incidents of graffiti on her car and front door.
The employee pleaded that she was
subjectively affected by her fellow employees' alleged conduct, stating that she
experienced "severe anxiety and depression such that she had to seek psychiatric
care and medicine." She additionally described an environment that discovery
might reveal as objectively offensive even though some of the alleged hostile
conduct was not linked to her race.
Reed v. Airtran
Airways