Ex-Fox News Employee Sues Over Allegedly Racist Abuse

Fox and (Their Caucasian) Friends

A black former Fox News technician is the latest to accuse the Fox News/NY Post crowd of racism. Harmeen Jones, 32, says he was fired from the network last year after complaining to Human Resources about some offensive crap his co-workers allegedly shoveled at him. He's suing for $3 million, and claims he was even physically threatened by one employee, Damien Rodriguez, who got in his face and said, "I’m the reason you got hired, and if it wasn’t for me you’d be fired. You must think I’m a punk, we can take this to the streets." The lawsuit accuses Fox employees of a daily barrage of offensive remarks about blacks, Arabs, Muslims, Hispanics, women, and Jews. Here's a sample!

While watching footage from a Tea Party rally, one colleague allegedly opined, "This is what happens when you mess with white people's health care."
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Jones says two of his coworkers said they wouldn't feel comfortable having a black president. At that point one of men turned to him and allegedly asked, "Am I offending your blackness?"
Jones also claims that on another occasion he was told, "You look like a gangster" and "You look like you're ready to shoot someone."

Jones also says his co-workers pretended not to hear him when he made transmission requests, and that his superiors denied his requests for paid training, while giving other, less senior white employees paid training. And when he finally complained to Human Resources, his co-workers called him a "snitch" and he was promptly called on the carpet by Steve Cary, the Director of Operations, who allegedly told him, "We gave you a chance and you repay us by making complaints to HR? You are terminated." (Huffington Post is hosting a pdf of the filing.)

Jones's lawsuit follows a string of harassment suits against the NY Post, which is owned by the same parent company as Fox News. Fox has declined to comment on Jones's lawsuit, but be sure to tune into The Daily Show tonight for context and analysis!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on October 21, 2010 10:35 AM

Comments [rss]

Igor47

Brotha Jones needs to grow a thicker skin. There's nothing in the examples cited that goes outside the bounds of personal opinion permissible in the context of a private conversation. Jones doesn't like his co-workers' opinions? Tough. His former employer should countersue him for attempting to violate his co-workers' constitutionally-protected right to free speech.

Spirit of 76

"This is what happens when you mess with white people's health care."

To be fair, that's not racist. Just the truth. If the government messed with minorities' health care, the Tea Party wouldn't look twice. If anything, this statement is an affirmation that the Tea Party is full of self-centered, purely self-interested white people.

fishfryin

JDS- talk about false advertising with that jump! i was so looking forward to reading what followed. too bad it wasn't really shocking or offensive at all... the middle comment could be offensive depending on context but overall, boring

handsomedevil

meh, I'd say for the three quotes you get

- not offensive

- pretty offensive

- certainly offensive on a personal level, if not necessarily racist

Dogsbody

For the third one, we really need to know the context.

If he'd shown up wearing low-slung baggy jeans, a wife-beater and a backwards yankee hat, then maybe his colleagues were simply mocking him in a non-racist way (just like if I'd have shown up wearing ripped jeans they might have said I looked like Bon Jovi, or if I was wearing a cowboy hat and chaps, they'd say "hey you look like a cowboy").

If on the other hand, he was dressed in a fairly typical manner (compared with everyone else in the environment), then yeah it seems pretty racist.

handsomedevil

and the first one is quite offensive if it means "this is what you black people get..." which is probably how the guy took it.

hotstepper

shocker.

JacqueMehoff

not surprised, the entire broadcasting industry is a old boy's network, it's white as rice behind the camera, too. until they die off. but it all balances out in the end.

JesusOurLord

None of that really seems racist or over the top. This whiny people are so annoying - it's like you have to walk on eggshells. Maybe he looked like a thug cause he was dressed like a thug. Maybe things were said tongue in cheek. I wish people could just say things.

mns

Oh you wish people could just say things? Ok:

You're an ignorant turd and you're the child of a thieving baptist b-grade radio evangelist and the drug-addled illiterate prostitute he raped.

Oh geez, I was just kidding. Just joshing in that Fox News kind of way.

Really, JOL, I don't believe that nasty sentence. And, I have no power over you and there is no apparent history of violence between my people and yours, since we know nothing about each other. So, what I wrote is just offensive, it's not something that bears on your future at your job, it's not something that will make you change your habits and so on.

But, if a Black person hears his White bosses bitches about Black people, then don't you think that might cause significant distress?

Come on, JOL, think about it.

robingee

>> Come on, JOL, think about it. >>

Now that would be a Jesus-sized miracle.

hotstepper

oooh this is fun, i love maybe games.

or MAYBE a network that overtly tailors their ideological message to the "angry white working class" demographic (aka "rednecks") is probably not a happy place to work for people who don't fit neatly into said demographic.