A supervisor and eight other black General Motors workers in Toledo, Ohio filed a lawsuit against the company alleging that managers didn’t do enough to stop racist comments and threats in the workplace.
Marcus Boyd, a supervisor at the Toledo Powertrain plant, who is black, told CNN the N-word was a phrase commonly used in the workplace.
He said he would report his subordinates, but was told by his superiors to let the matter go if he wanted to get along at GM, and no disciplinary action was taken against the employees.
Derrick Brooks, another black supervisor, found a noose hanging in an area he worked, which he believed was meant to intimidate him as he was the only black employee in that area during that shift.
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In the lawsuit, Boyd, along with eight other GM employees, allege that five nooses were found and reported to GM. They say, however, that the company allowed the “underlying atmosphere of violent racial hate and bullying.”
One of the nooses was found in a bathroom marked in graffiti: “White’s Only.”
“Discrimination and harassment are not acceptable and [are] in stark contrast to how we expect people to show up at work,” GM said in a statement, rejecting the lawsuit’s characterization of its handling of the situation. “We treat any reported incident with sensitivity and urgency, and are committed to providing an environment that is safe, open and inclusive. General Motors is taking this matter seriously and addressing it through the appropriate court process.”
Another black employee, Darlene Sweeney-Newbern, the commission’s director of regional operations, claimed that in a meeting to address the noose placements a white supervisor said, “There was never a black person who was lynched that didn’t deserve it.”
Boyd said that white employees would call all black workers “Dan,” which he thought was just a lack of respect in learning black employee’s names. He later learned it was an acronym for “dumb ass n—-r.”
There have been no identifications for those responsible for hanging the nooses, but a GM representative said there have been several firings in Toledo linked to an extensive anti-discrimination, anti-harassment work initiative.
Lawyers for those suing GM say there continues to be racist remarks at the plant, which will likely be included in the lawsuit.
