Woman unhappy about drawing that showed Obama as a monkey

The scenario: A Black woman was unhappy when she saw a drawing that depicted former President Barack Obama as a monkey posted on a bulletin board. The woman didn’t say anything about the drawing, and it was removed a short time later.

Another time, the woman was upset when, during a presentation by the United Way asking for donations, a white coworker pointed to several photos of poor African children and said, “I don’t give to people like that.” Around the same time, another white colleague said African Americans are dumb.

The Black staff member was also troubled when a white male coworker speaking to her asked whether he “sounded like a n-gg-r.” The woman didn’t say anything about the comment because she felt that kind of language was commonplace in the workplace.

Unable to deal with the discriminatory comments, the woman quit. After she resigned, the HR manager asked to meet with her so she could investigate the woman’s claims about alleged bias, but the Black woman refused to be interviewed, saying she had no interest in being part of a “sham investigation.”

Legal challenge: The Black woman sued for race discrimination.

The ruling: The company won. The court said the woman didn’t suffer an adverse employment action because of her race, noting that she quit. And the judge said the discriminatory comments weren’t enough to justify her resignation as a constructive discharge.

The skinny: Remember: Workers who resign a job and sue have to show that the biased behavior was so intolerable that they had no choice but to quit, which is often hard to prove.

Cite: Bradley v. Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, U.S. District Court, D. Kansas, No. 2:23-cv-2088, 8/20/24.

(From the Oct. 18, 2024, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)