A lawsuit filed by a South Carolina man claims he endured years of racial harassment and intimidation that included urine, the n-word and the recently-resurgent Caucasian hobby of hanging nooses. Even worse, the employee alleges that supervisors at the company were aware of the situation and did nothing to stop it.
According to the State, Curtis Anthony, an employee of Boeing manufacturing’s 787 Dreamliner Assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C., filed a federal lawsuit against Boeing after he found a noose hanging above his desk on Feb. 28. Anthony, who has worked for the company since 2011, says the racial intimidation began in 2017 when his fellow employees began using the n-word in his presence and peed on his desk and chair at work.
Anthony, who is black, insists that he informed Boeing’s management of the episodes but—aside from firing the employee who allegedly hung the noose—the company did not take steps to end the harassment.
“The first incident in the lawsuit, they should have acted on it immediately, but management failed to act on it,” Anthony told WCSC. “The second incident, which is the noose, I think the only reason they acted on it was because I reported it to everybody from lower level to upper level.”
The lawsuit claims that Anthony’s workplace environment made him drink heavily, eventually causing so much stress that he twice had to take medical leave so he could get counseling.
Boeing denies the allegations in Anthony’s lawsuit and issued a statement insinuating that Anthony is both a wanton liar and a great employee, writing:
The Boeing Company has been named in a lawsuit filed by Curtis Anthony, a current teammate working in Boeing South Carolina Aftbody building. Anthony is alleging race discrimination, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, violations of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), breach of contract and breach of contract with fraudulent intent.
While Mr. Anthony is a valued Boeing South Carolina teammate, there is no validity to his allegations. In fact, Mr. Anthony’s requests for FMLA leave have been consistently and repeatedly approved by the company in an expeditious manner.
Moreover, most of Mr. Anthony’s allegations were never brought to the attention of management, giving the company no opportunity to investigate these claims. The single issue he did raise was dealt with promptly and in a fair manner.
Anthony still technically works for Boeing although he is out on medical leave.
Neither Anthony nor Boeing would say what they did with his now-unused desk chair although there are several melanin-less employees of G/O who would insist that there is nothing wrong with that seat because pee-pee is sterile.
DISCUSSION
Ex-dialysis social worker here: pee is not always sterile. It can be loaded with infectious bacteria without having either a dark color or an odor. Men may have urinary infections for years and be symptom-free (although they can pass the infection to intimate partners).