Appeals Court in Atlanta Again Rejects Racial Discrimination Claim

[mike r]

Source: New York Times

John Hithon, a black man, spent 13 tough years working his way into the lower ranks of management at a Tyson Foods chicken plant in Gadsden, Ala. He started out as a “live hanger,” hoisting 24 squirming birds onto moving metal hooks every minute. Then he moved up to what court records called “killing and picking.” He was later made a supervisor in charge of “eviscerating and deboning.”

But when two better jobs as shift supervisors opened up, Mr. Hithon was passed over by the plant manager, who was white, in favor of two white candidates from other Tyson plants. Mr. Hithon thought his skin color had something to do with it, and he sued for racial discrimination. As evidence, he testified about the manager’s habit of calling black employees “boy.”

Last month, for the third time and in the face of a 2006 rebuke from the United States Supreme Court, the federal appeals court in Atlanta said there were no racial overtones when a white supervisor called an adult black man “boy.”

“The usages were conversational,” the majority explained, repeating what it had told the trial court after the Supreme Court ruled, and “nonracial in context.” Even if “somehow construed as racial,” the unsigned 2-to-1 decision went on, “the comments were ambiguous stray remarks” that were not proof of employment discrimination.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07bar.html

[BlueJazz]

1. Ah Yeah....Go down to most Black Neighborhoods and call somebody "Boy"

The "ambiguous stray remark" will get your teeth knocked down your throat.

When a white boss calls an African American "Boy" it's discrimination..PERIOD. :mad:

[hughee99]

2. Isn't it racism?

It's racism when a white boss calls an African American "boy". It's discrimination when he doesn't give that same person a job because of his race.

[BlueJazz]

6. True...but seems to me that Racism is a form of discrimination.

[Hosnon]

8. Or is it the other way around?

That discrimination is a form of racism.

[ThomCat]

3. That is a crazy decision!

A white man calling a black man "boy?" Of course that is racist! You can't get much more textbook racist than that! Belittling the maturity of a black men regardless of age, always calling them boy was one of the defining aspects of racist language!

Bypassing that same black man for promotion while promoting only white men? Of course that is racist!

That judge is deliberately refusing to see racism! :grr:

Unless there was a flaming cross on a lawn, and a noose hanging from a tree, would that judge be able to see racism? Even then, would that judge still demand more evidence?

:wtf:

[Gator_Matt]

4. I have mixed feelings about this

There are quite a few questions left unanswered in the article:

1. Was his supervisor also the one calling the shots about whether he would also become a supervisor?

2. Were other minorities consistently passed up for promotion in a statistically significant manner? i.e. Was this a trend?

3. Can anyone other than the plaintiff and his wife (i.e. those with $1,000,000 to gain) substantiate the supervisor's crass remarks?

It's easy to immediately condemn this decision, but when so much is at stake there is the burden of proof. The article seems to address none of these pertinent questions.

[EFerrari]

5. The fact that the supervisor used that language doesn't seem to be in question. n/t

[brendan120678]

7. So..how was the word, "boy," used...

if it wasn't racial?

Sure, sometimes when talking with someone else, I may say something like:
"Boy, I'm tired today!" or
"Boy, our boss is being a jerk today."

I don't think I would think twice about using the word "boy" in that instance, no matter who I was talking to.
But I don't think that it was the same situation here.