Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Virginia

While turning in my two weeks notice to my job I let them know that I was leaving due to racist remarks my boss made. Specifically ni**** mule while referring to a fellow employee. After a week of my notice and numerous questions into their actions they released me from duty with pay for the following week. Now 3 weeks later the company has done the same to another employee who filed a similar complaint against the same manager. Do we have a case since we felt we had to leave our jobs due to this manager. He has had several complaints against him in the past the company never takes action, almost as if they are afraid of him.


Asked on 12/30/14, 11:39 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen B. Pershing Stephen B. Pershing, Esq.

Hello there--the answer is yes, this may be serious enough that it violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The specific claim would be for what's called "hostile working environment." Your quitting would have to be presented as "constructive discharge," as if they'd fired you for discriminatory reasons--the theory is that in this environment no reasonable employee would stick around. The N-word is about the worst--there are some court decisions that say a single use of it is enough, and I think N mule is even uglier, if possible!--but it all depends on the surrounding facts. In a case like this it'd be great to have several plaintiffs with closely similar claims. I'm an experienced civil rights lawyer, former DOJ and ACLU, and I look at cases like this regularly. If you'd like to bat it around some more, I'm happy to, without charge. Let's see if there's a case here. Please feel warmly invited to call or write. --Steve Pershing.

Stephen B. Pershing, Esq.

1416 E Street, N.E.

Washington, D.C. 20002

(202) 642-1431

[email protected]

(Admitted in Va., D.C. and Md.)

Read more
Answered on 12/30/14, 9:03 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Civil Rights Law questions and answers in Virginia