In just less than a week after Bill O’Reilly has been ousted at Fox News; the Cable Network faces another controversy as new racial discrimination complaints have been filed against the company.
The class-action lawsuit, which has been filed in New York by eleven current and former Fox News employees, alleged that the network tolerates unlawful and hostile racial discrimination in the workplace.
The lawsuit expanded a complaint filed on March 28 by Tabrese Wright and Tichaona Brown, two African-American women who worked in the network’s payroll department.
They claim that Judith Slater, the company’s controller, made racist remarks and had been involved in racist behaviors. The Complainants also claim that the senior executives at the network ignored her illegal actions.
On April 4, Monica Douglas was the third Fox News employee to join the lawsuit.
Slater’s alleged behavior
According to the lawsuit, Slater demanded minority employees to arm-wrestle with white female supervisors for her own personal entertainment. Also, Slater allegedly ridiculed how African-Americans pronounced words such as “mother” and “ask.” After President Donald Trump has made the announcement of the travel ban, the suit alleged that Slater asked who among the black employees were going to Africa.
The complainants
One of the last employees to file a complaint was Kelly Wright, a two-time Emmy Award winner and a former co-host of “Fox and Friends Weekend.” He claimed that O’Reilly did not want him on his show to discuss racial conciliation. The host then allegedly suggests that Wright calls Roger Ailes and Bill Shine instead and offer to sing the national anthem at the Fox News Town Halls.
Fox News denies the accusations
The network, along with the company’s executive vice president of business and legal affairs Dianne Brandi, who was also included in the lawsuit, vehemently deny the accusation against them. They claim that the latest lawsuits are just copycat complaints of the first lawsuit filed last month and plan to defend these cases.
Jeanne Christensen, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement, “When it comes to racial discrimination, 21st Century Fox has been operating as if it should be called 18th Century Fox,” according to a report by USA Today.
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