Hello all,
My wife was recently put in the terrible position of being accused of "cultural insensitivity", which is a watered down way to put racism. She was reported by another female in her office. This person never seemed to like my wife very much at all, and she hails from Senegal in Africa.
She reported my wife for 4 instances over the past 8 months which she took offense to. She never approached my wife about the comments, nor did my wife recieve any warnings until she was informed of all 4 instances at the same time.
I will lay out all four instances, but 3 out of the four revolve around the use of the word Black to describe African Americans.
Case 1
While discussing parents who allow their children to wander city streets alone, my wife stated. "Yes, just the other day I saw this cute little black girl walking down main street all alone with her backpack, she must couldn't have been more than six years old."
Case 2
While dicussing an employee of mine, she said. "Yes there was this black guy who worked with Joe who..."
Case 3 (the worst of the three, in the employers eyes, and I have to agree, it's the most borderline.)
She mentioned that "She was driving down Main street and almost hit some people. She could barely see them because they were black."
Case 4 A man (who happened to be black) stuck his head out of the window of his car and called her "Bitch" for walking too close to the road. She turned to a coworker and said "Why do people do that?" Now, black was not mentioned in this case, but the coworker who reported her obviously felt it was inferred.
On the grounds of those 4 instances, the employer decided it was time to "part ways" with my wife. Her benefits were terminated, her belongings boxed up and shipped out, and she was left jobless.
The employer does have a hire and fire at will policy in place, but with these 4 cases as the reason for termination, do we have a case for wrongful termination? Something about the whole situation just seems terribly wrong to me, and it seems that her coworker is the one who is culturally insensitive, and here in the U.S. black is pretty much an accepted term for African Americans (See Black History Month) , and my own boss, who is black, said she would preferred to be called black to African American.
The employer is currently making it's employees watch a cultural diversity video, but my wife was farther down on the list for the video and hasn't seen it yet. She is unsure if in the handbook it had a zero tolerence policy on discrimination, but in my own opinion (which is admittedly biased) this person was offended and felt discriminated against because they WANTED to feel offended and discriminated against.
If any more details are needed to develop a better opinion on the situation, just let me know, and I will provide all I can. We do have an appointment in a few days to see an attorney, but if I can get a heads up to info they might need, I would greatly appreciate it. (Also, we're in the state of Ohio, if that helps )
Thanks in Advance.
My wife was recently put in the terrible position of being accused of "cultural insensitivity", which is a watered down way to put racism. She was reported by another female in her office. This person never seemed to like my wife very much at all, and she hails from Senegal in Africa.
She reported my wife for 4 instances over the past 8 months which she took offense to. She never approached my wife about the comments, nor did my wife recieve any warnings until she was informed of all 4 instances at the same time.
I will lay out all four instances, but 3 out of the four revolve around the use of the word Black to describe African Americans.
Case 1
While discussing parents who allow their children to wander city streets alone, my wife stated. "Yes, just the other day I saw this cute little black girl walking down main street all alone with her backpack, she must couldn't have been more than six years old."
Case 2
While dicussing an employee of mine, she said. "Yes there was this black guy who worked with Joe who..."
Case 3 (the worst of the three, in the employers eyes, and I have to agree, it's the most borderline.)
She mentioned that "She was driving down Main street and almost hit some people. She could barely see them because they were black."
Case 4 A man (who happened to be black) stuck his head out of the window of his car and called her "Bitch" for walking too close to the road. She turned to a coworker and said "Why do people do that?" Now, black was not mentioned in this case, but the coworker who reported her obviously felt it was inferred.
On the grounds of those 4 instances, the employer decided it was time to "part ways" with my wife. Her benefits were terminated, her belongings boxed up and shipped out, and she was left jobless.
The employer does have a hire and fire at will policy in place, but with these 4 cases as the reason for termination, do we have a case for wrongful termination? Something about the whole situation just seems terribly wrong to me, and it seems that her coworker is the one who is culturally insensitive, and here in the U.S. black is pretty much an accepted term for African Americans (See Black History Month) , and my own boss, who is black, said she would preferred to be called black to African American.
The employer is currently making it's employees watch a cultural diversity video, but my wife was farther down on the list for the video and hasn't seen it yet. She is unsure if in the handbook it had a zero tolerence policy on discrimination, but in my own opinion (which is admittedly biased) this person was offended and felt discriminated against because they WANTED to feel offended and discriminated against.
If any more details are needed to develop a better opinion on the situation, just let me know, and I will provide all I can. We do have an appointment in a few days to see an attorney, but if I can get a heads up to info they might need, I would greatly appreciate it. (Also, we're in the state of Ohio, if that helps )
Thanks in Advance.
