When one word and one time are too many

It is “probably the most offensive word in English.”

—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh

In a recent case, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas employers) ruled one use of a racist term is enough to create a hostile work environment.

Context

Anthony Woods was employed by the city of New Orleans as a maintenance worker and painter at the French Market in the New Orleans French Quarter from April 2013 until August 2019, when he was terminated following a workplace “scuffle.” After unsuccessfully appealing his termination to the Louisiana Civil Service Commission, he filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and received a right-to-sue letter.

Woods filed suit in federal district court in New Orleans against the city, several city officials, and his former supervisor, asserting a plethora of claims, including that he was subjected to a hostile work environment based on his race. With one exception, however, he failed to back up his claims with concrete allegations of fact. The one exception was his hostile work environment claim, which he said was based on a single incident in which his Hispanic supervisor allegedly called him a “Lazy Monkey A__ N_____” in the presence of his coworkers. The racial epithet isn’t spelled out anywhere in the court records. It doesn’t need to be.

District court dismisses all claims