Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Fox News Grows
It looks like the fallout at Fox News will continue to grow despite the firings of former comptroller Judy Slater and Bill O’Reilly.
New York Magazine reports that another seven employees are expected to join the racial discrimination suit against the network that was filed in late March. A source for the Daily Intelligencer says the plaintiffs’ lawyers plan to allege that Tammy Efinger, the director of accounting at Fox did nothing about Slater’s behavior, which included using racial insults toward employees.
In a letter to the network’s lawyers obtained by New York, the attorneys state:
“Not once did Ms. Efinger step in or attempt to interfere with Ms. Slater’s outrageous conduct.” The letter adds, instead, “Ms. Efinger chose to laugh or giggle following Ms. Slater’s vitriol.
It gets worse though…
According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Slater demanded that black employees hold “arm wrestling matches’” with white female employees in her office, just down the hall from Ailes’s office on the 2nd floor of Fox headquarters. “Forcing a black woman employee to ‘fight’ for the amusement and pleasure of her white superiors is horrifying. This highly offensive and humiliating act is reminiscent of Jim Crow era battle royals,” the letter says, referring to the practice of paying black men to fight blindfolded at carnivals for white spectators’ entertainment. The lawyers argue that Efinger bragged about wanting to “fight” a black employee.
Jeanne Christensen, a lawyer for the employees, commented,
“There will be more complaints forthcoming in the next few days.”
YIKES… This is bad. Really really bad. All we know is the employees suing BETTER see a bigger payout than O’Reilly’s severance package.
