Fox News is under fire amid allegations that the network “failed to address racial discrimination against two black women who work for the company.” Just last Tuesday, Tichaona Brown and Tabrese Wright sued the network, claiming they and “other dark-skinned employees suffered years-long racial animus from Judith Slater, a former senior vice president and company controller.”
Fox News is under fire amid allegations that the network “failed to address racial discrimination against two black women who work for the company.” Just last Tuesday, Tichaona Brown and Tabrese Wright sued the network, claiming they and “other dark-skinned employees suffered years-long racial animus from Judith Slater, a former senior vice president and company controller.” According to the lawsuit filed in a Bronx Supreme Court lawsuit in New York City, Slater “ridiculed black employees by mocking stereotyped speech” and would even force them to “pronounce the words ‘mother,’ ‘father,’ ‘month’ and ‘ask’ correctly in front of white employees.”
As if those allegations aren’t bad enough, Wright claims in the lawsuit that Slater actually asked if her three children “were fathered by the same man.” Additionally, the lawsuit charges that, for years, Fox News allowed Slater to demean minority employees and subject them to “a racially hostile work environment without fear of punishment or reprisal.”
Finally, Wright and Brown had enough, as the lawsuit points out, by stating:
“No longer willing to remain silent while Fox treated employees of color as second-class citizens, Ms. Brown and Ms. Wright dared to speak out about the intolerable work environment, including their unequal pay and opportunities for advancement and development as compared to similarly-situated white employees.”
The lawsuit also claims that, in response to the allegations, Fox “fired Brown and demoted Wright.” Despite that, though, attorneys for the two women are “confident that the good men and women of the Bronx will hold Fox accountable for what we believe to be its abhorrent racist conduct reminiscent of the Jim Crow era.”
So what did Fox News have to say for itself in the face of such allegations? Well, they released a statement, saying:
“We take complaints of this nature very seriously and took prompt and effective remedial action before Ms. Brown and Ms. Wright sued in court and even before Ms. Wright complained through her lawyer…There is no place for inappropriate verbal remarks like this at Fox News. We are disappointed that this needless litigation has been filed.”
In addition to their statement, representatives for the network revealed that Slater was fired back on Feb. 28 and that Brown was not fired, and is still a network employee. Fox also said that Wright was not demoted, “but instead was transferred to a lateral position with the same work title, salary, and benefits.”
Even if that is true, it doesn’t excuse the treatment that Brown and Wright had to suffer through from Slater. Fox is the one that hired Slater, so they should be held accountable, to some extent, for her actions, especially since they allowed the discrimination to go on for years before getting rid of her.
Sources:
2 black women sue Fox News Network for alleged racial discrimination
Two Black Women Sue Fox News Over ‘Top-Down Racial Harassment’
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