The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit alleging that a medical clinic subjected a black employee to a hostile work environment and retaliated against her for complaining that a white supervisor used code words to cloak racial slurs, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
In a lawsuit, the agency alleges a supervisor at the Arthritis and Orthopedic Medical Clinic in Los Gatos, California, used the word "reggin" and other coded derogatory words when referring to Tomeika L. Broussard, a black employee who worked as a file clerk at the clinic, the newspaper reports.
''Even though the n-word is backward, it doesn't remove the fact that it's an inflammatory racial slur,'' Sanya Hill Maxion, an EEOC attorney, tells the newspaper. ''We're seeing more and more cases these days in which code words are being used to cloak discrimination. We're starting to recognize that this is a problem.''
Maxion tells the newspaper that the agency looks at several factors when investigating a bias complaint involving code words.
''We look at the code words: Who's stating them, tone of voice, do they mean it in a derogatory fashion?'' Maxion said. ''We have to look at the context.''
The EEOC alleges that the clinic fired the Broussard after she complained.
The EEOC recently released guidance that addresses subtle forms of race and color discrimination, including use of code words. You can read the guidance here.
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