Was it OK for supervisor to turn a blind eye to the use of the N-word in Spanish?

Supervisor’s take-home: You have a legal responsibility to immediately discipline anyone who uses the N-word, even when the offensive term is spoken in a foreign language.

What happened: A Black woman was upset when her manager ordered her to clean an office, which wasn’t one of her normal job duties. White coworkers with similar job titles had never been assigned cleaning duties. A short time later, the Black staffer overheard a conversation in Spanish between her direct supervisor and a coworker during which the word “mayate” was used to refer to the Black employee. The woman later learned that mayate is the Spanish equivalent of the N-word.

What people did: The Black woman asked her boss whether she could take two days off for her husband’s surgery, and her manager told her she’d be fired if she did so because she had no sick or vacation days left. The woman resigned her position before she could be terminated.

Legal challenge: The Black woman sued for a racially hostile workplace.

Result: The employer lost. The court said the staff member provided sufficient proof that she might have endured a racially hostile workplace. The most damning evidence against the employer, according to the judge, was the use of the
N-word in Spanish in front of the woman’s supervisor and the failure of her supervisor to do anything about it, even though the organization had a policy of zero tolerance for racially hostile words. The use of the offensive term and the supervisor’s insistence that the Black woman handle cleaning duties amounted to potential proof of racial hostility.

The skinny: Courts expect companies to ensure their supervisors enforce policies. That’s why judges usually rule against organizations when bosses ignore the use of racially insensitive words, no matter what language they’re spoken in.

Cite: Long v. State of Illinois Dept. of Human Services, U.S. District Court, N.D. Illinois, No. 20-cv-02098, 8/5/23.

(From the Aug. 25, 2023, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)