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The Associated Press Brandi Johnson, left, and her lawyer, Marjorie M. Sharpe, leave federal court in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013, after a civil jury awarded $30,000 in punitive damages in addition to the $250,000 in compensatory damages that had been awarded last week. The jury said STRIVE East Harlem, a nonprofit employment organization, must pay $5,000 while one of its founders, Rob Carmona, owes $25,000 in punitive damages after an audio-tape played during a week-long trial showed he launched an N-word laced tirade against Johnson while she worked at STRIVE last year. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)

By LARRY NEUMEISTER/Associated Press/September 4, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) The lawyer for a black woman whose hostile workplace claim against a black bosss N-word rant produced a $280,000 jury award says she hopes the case teaches society something.

Its the most offensive word in the English language, attorney Marjorie M. Sharpe said outside federal court in Manhattan after a jury Tuesday added $30,000 in punitive damages to go with a $250,000 compensatory damages award it imposed last week against STRIVE East Harlem and founder Rob Carmona.

Sharpe stood with her client, 38-year-old Brandi Johnson, after a jury of six men and two women determined Carmona owes her $25,000 and STRIVE $5,000 in additional damages in a case that put a legal microscope to the concept that the word that is a degrading slur when spoken by whites can be used without retribution and sometimes affectionately among blacks, even in the workplace.

Sharpe said the double standard had persisted far too long as people have tried to take the sting away from the N-word.

Johnson said she hopes the word now wont be tolerated no matter what your race is.

Carmona, a 61-year-old black man of Puerto Rican descent, had testified at the trial that he was dispensing tough love in language he faced from counselors who turned him from a drug addict with an arrest record into the creator of an often-praised organization that has helped nearly 50,000 hard-to-employ people find work since 1984.

Johnson had recorded the March 2012 tirade about inappropriate workplace attire and unprofessional behavior that was aired for the jury and described by both sides as the trials centerpiece. She said she cried for 45 minutes in the restroom afterward.

I was offended. I was hurt. I felt degraded. I felt disrespected. I was embarrassed, Johnson testified.

Read the original here:
Jury awards $280,000 in NY case over N-word abuse

A federal jury ruled that saying the N-word in the workplace no matter the ethnicity of the person who uses it is hostile and discriminatory, and not a term of endearment. The ruling clarifies what some have called a confusing double standard for years that blacks can say the N-word with impunity, but if other races do, its blatant discrimination.

Jurors in Manhattan awarded $250,000 in damages and compensation last week to a black employment agency worker, Brandi Johnson, 38, who was subjected to an N-word rant from her black employer, Rob Carmona, The Associated Press reported. On Tuesday, the case heads back to federal court to determine the punitive damage amount.

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Ms. Johnson said through her attorney that the rant was a four-minute [N-word] tirade, that sent her to the bathroom to cry for 45 minutes.

She testified: I was offended. I was hurt. I felt degraded. I felt disrespected. I was embarrassed, AP reported.

Her attorney said, during closing arguments, that when you use the [N-word] to an African-American, no matter how many alternative definitions that you may try to substitute with the [N-word], that is no different than calling a Hispanic by the worst possible word you can call a Hispanic, calling a homosexual male the worst possible word that you can call a homosexual male, AP reported.

Defense attorneys tried to paint Mr. Carmona as a victim of his environment, which included a tough New York City upbringing by a single mother that led to his addiction to heroin. He overcame that addiction, but said the N-word had been part and parcel of his growing up years, and that it meant different things in different settings.

For instance, he testified, AP reported, he might put his arm around a longtime friend and say This is my [N-word] for 30 years. The word has multiple contexts, he said. He also said that word has affectionate and love connotations and it was in that tone, that he said it to Ms. Johnson.

Mr. Carmonas business is called STRIVE East Harlem, and he founded it as a means of helping those of fewer means with ability to gain employment.

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Read more:
‘N-word’ on trial: Federal jury says it’s not a term of endearment

A federal jury decided that the use of the N-word is not an acceptable expression of love and endearment, but rather a hostile and discriminatory term, no matter what ethnicity the speaker is.

The case addressed the double standard that the word is a degrading slur when used by whites but is acceptable to be used freely by blacks. 38-year old Brandi Johnson filed the case against Rob Carmona and his agency STRIVE East Harlem after a four-minute ni--er tirade about inappropriate and unprofessional dress and behavior, according to the Associated Press.

Johnson addressed the verbal abuse during the trial, saying, I was offended. I was hurt. I felt degraded. I felt disrespected. I was embarrassed.

Johnson and her attorney claimed that the sole purpose of the word is to offend someone. "When you use the word ni--er to an African-American, no matter how many alternative definitions that you may try to substitute with the word ni--er, that is no different than calling a Hispanic by the worst possible word you can call a Hispanic, calling a homosexual male the worst possible word that you can call a homosexual male," attorney Marjorie M. Sharpe maintained during her closing statement.

The defense claimed that Carmona's rough background instilled a different meaning of the word in his mind. Carmona said that the word has multiple contexts, ranging from hate and anger to love. He also claimed that his use of the word towards Johnson was supposed to be out of love.

But Sharpe fought back, saying, "well, if calling a person a ni--er and subjecting them to a hostile work environment is part of STRIVE's tough love, then STRIVE needs to be reminded that this type of behavior is illegal and cannot be tolerated."

Last week, jurors awarded $250,000 in compensation damages to Johnson. The jury will return to a Manhattan federal court Tuesday to determine the punitive damages.

The Washington Times reports that the results only apply to this case specifically, but it could have further effects on how these kinds of situations are handled in the workplace.

Excerpt from:
The double standard of the "N-word" addressed in trial

The N-word is unacceptable from whites, but some argue it is socially acceptable within the African-American community. A recent court case challenges that double standard, arguing that it is a degrading term regardless of the race of the speaker.

In a case that gave a legal airing to the debate over use of the N-word within the African-American community, a federal jury has rejected the argument by an African-American manager that it was a term of love and endearment when he aimed it at an African-American employee.

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Jurors awarded $30,000 in punitive damages Tuesday after finding last week that the manager's four-minute rant was hostile and discriminatory, and awarding $250,000 in compensatory damages.

The case against Rob Carmona and the employment agency he founded, STRIVE East Harlem, hinged on the what some see as a complex double standard surrounding the word: It's a degrading slur when uttered by whites but can be used at times with impunity between African-Americans.

But 38-year-old Brandi Johnson told jurors that his race didn't make it any less hurtful when Carmona repeatedly targeted her with the slur during a March 2012 tirade about inappropriate workplace attire and unprofessional behavior.

Johnson, who taped the remarks after her complaints about his verbal abuse were disregarded, said she fled to the restroom and cried for 45 minutes.

"I was offended. I was hurt. I felt degraded. I felt disrespected. I was embarrassed," Johnson testified.

The jury ordered Carmona to pay $25,000 in punitive damages and STRIVE to pay $5,000.

Link:
N-word on trial: Should the law hold a double standard?

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