Think your boss is awful? Like, god-awful? Whoever you’re thinking about right now for a horrible boss award, Judith Slater, the former comptroller of Fox News probably has them beat. The New York Times reported last week that two African-American employees sued Slater, their white boss, for racially harassing them for years. The lawsuit also names 21st Century Fox, Fox News and Diane Brandi, Fox’s in-house counsel as plaintiffs.
It’s not unusual to hear about bosses demeaning their employees, but the allegations against Slater are pretty shocking. Here’s an example:
The women — Tichaona Brown, a payroll manager, and Tabrese Wright, a payroll coordinator — accused Ms. Slater of making numerous racially charged comments, including suggestions that black men were “women beaters” and that black people wanted to physically harm white people.
They also said that Ms. Slater claimed that black employees mispronounced words, such as “mother,” “father,” “month” and “ask,” and that she urged Ms. Brown to say those words aloud in a meeting. Ms. Wright said Ms. Slater once asked if her three children were all “fathered by the same man.”
Also! Slater is alleged to have “made disparaging comments about Ms. Wright’s hair and credit score” mocked Black Lives Matter, “and referred to their majority-black department as the ‘urban’ or ‘Southern’ payroll department.”
“That’s all pretty deplorable,” you might say, “But there are lots of racist asshole bosses out there, what makes this racist asshole boss so much worse than the others?”
I’ll tell you what! It was widely reported today that a third plaintiff, Monica Douglas, has joined the lawsuit and alleged that Slater not only made racially charged comments to her but also mocked her for after undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Heavy has a rundown of the worst:
- Constantly mocking Ms. Douglas for the size of a breast that was removed as part of her cancer treatment;
- Saying to Ms. Douglas, “your boobs look like they are different sizes – oh, that’s right, you only have one boob;”
- Referring to Ms. Douglas as “boobs girl” or the “one-boobed girl;”
- Telling Ms. Douglas that her “boobs look crooked;”
- Referring to Ms. Douglas as “cancer girl,” among many other discriminatory statements; and
- Regularly saying aloud to Ms. Douglas and other employees that Ms. Douglas’s breast cancer treatment and chemotherapy was responsible for “increasing everyone’s” healthcare premiums.
Yeesh. Fox News fired Slater last week after the lawsuit was initially filed, but said in a statement that it’s “disappointed that this needless litigation has been filed.” No word on why Fox News needlessly employed Slater for so long.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
