N-word, bias focus of trial
Lawsuit filed by S.C. plant worker raises questions of racial discrimination
By RICK BRUNDRETT
rbrundrett@thestate.com
A black employee contends in a federal civil rights lawsuit that he was fired from his job at a Chester County manufacturing plant after complaining about unequal treatment of black workers.
The company says that the employee was fired for using a racial slur in the workplace.
The lawsuit, set for trial this week in U.S. District Court in Columbia, raises a sensitive, widely debated issue: Is it ever appropriate for black people to use the N-word?
The N-word has been regarded as a positive term by some African-Americans, said Adolphus Belk Jr., an assistant professor of political science and African-American studies at Winthrop University.
He noted the late rap artist and social activist Tupac Shakur once changed the spelling of the word, dropping the “E” and “R” and adding an “A,” to create an acronym that stood for “Never ignorant about getting goals accomplished.”
In his lawsuit against Guardian Industries, Eddie Curry, a packer at the Richburg plant, says the reason that he was fired had nothing to do with the N-word.
While a white employee alleged Curry used the word, Curry contends his white supervisors fired him in November 2004 in retaliation for his complaints about how other black employees were treated. In court papers, Curry said he complained at least five times between August and October 2003 about “denied promotions and equal treatment.”
Curry, a Guardian Industries employee for about two years, said he was not allowed to defend himself when he was fired and was not given specifics about the allegation against him.
Curry asserts he is the victim of racial discrimination under the federal 1964 Civil Rights Act. His lawsuit asks for unspecified actual and punitive damages from the company, which makes glass for the building and automotive industries.
Efforts to reach Curry, who lives in Lancaster, or his lawyers with the Gist Law Firm in Columbia for comment were unsuccessful.
Beverly Carroll, a Charlotte attorney representing Guardian Industries, said Curry was fired solely because he violated the company’s anti-harassment policy.
“The company terminated Mr. Curry because it has a policy that prohibits the use of any language or actions that can be considered racially motivated,” she said.
In court papers, company officials said they learned, after Curry’s firing, that he had used the N-word often “to and around employees of both races” and “physically threatened other employees on a consistent basis and otherwise engaged in a pattern of behavior that caused fear to other employees.”
Curry sued the company in July 2005 after filing a discrimination complaint with the S.C. Human Affairs Commission.
In court papers, the company said the state commission and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined there was “not sufficient evidence to support the claim” by Curry. Officials at the state commission would not comment, citing state and federal law.
The trial before U.S. District Chief Judge Joe Anderson is expected to start Wednesday and last several days.
Winthrop’s Belk said the N-word still is used because race discrimination continues.
“We could stop everyone from saying the word, but that wouldn’t stop everything that causes people to say the word,” he said.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16828764.htm
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Eddie curry sues meat packing plant
