Use of racial epithets moves claims case forward

The repeated use of a racial epithet by the 6-year-old grandson of the owners of an assisted living facility was sufficient to support a former employee’s hostile work environment claim, a unanimous panel of a federal appeals court has ruled.

Tonya R. Chapman, a Black female, worked at the Oakland Living Center in Virginia for two periods of time. From 2004 to 2015, she worked as a housekeeper, cook and personal care aide at the assisted living facility. She claimed that during this 11-year span, she experienced racial harassment and other discrimination perpetrated by members of the white family that owned the facility.

According to Chapman, the Smith family – Arlene and Michael, who own OLC; their son Steve, who served as a supervisor while training to take over the business; and three of Steve’s sons – made comments about giving her a “slave number,” complained “there were too many Blacks at Myrtle Beach” and gave her a cake arguably depicting a Black figure hanging from a noose at a monkey-themed party for Steve’s sons.

Based on these incidents and a lack of advancement, Chapman quit.

But in 2018, she returned to OLC as a weekend cook. One day, one of Steve’s sons – who were present at the facility all the time – kicked her and told her, “My daddy called you a lazy [expletive] Black [n-word], because you didn’t come to work.” Chapman reported the incident to her supervisor.

The following month, the same 6-year-old yelled repeated racial slurs at her.

Chapman quit and filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which didn’t include information about the discrimination she allegedly experienced during her first time at OLC. She then filed suit pro se, accusing OLC of a hostile work environment and constructive discharge.

OLC moved for summary judgment. The district court – considering only the latter incidents – granted the motion. Chapman appealed.

Writing for a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Robert B. King reversed, finding those incidents sufficient to move her claims forward and further holding that the district court should have considered the earlier alleged harassment.

“[T]he fact that the three n-word incidents were perpetrated by a six-year-old boy does not preclude a finding that those incidents are sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter Chapman’s conditions of employment and create an abusive work environment,” he wrote. “[D]ue consideration must be given on remand to the racial harassment and other discrimination allegedly perpetrated against Chapman during her earlier period of employment. At minimum, it is relevant background evidence in support of the hostile work environment and constructive discharge claims premised on the three n-word incidents.”