The federal government’s New Orleans EEOC is suing EXXON for allegedly ignoring racial discrimination in the form of five nooses found over several years, from 2016 to 2020. Most of these noose incidents turn out to be hoaxes. Jussie Smollett or Bubba Wallace, anyone?
Anyone could have planted them.
The claim is EXXON didn’t do enough to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“When employers become aware of racially offensive or threatening conduct in the workplace, they have a legal obligation to take prompt, remedial action aimed at stopping it,” Rudy Sustaita, a regional attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Houston District Office, said in a press release announcing the lawsuit Thursday.
“A noose is a long-standing symbol of violence associated with the lynching of African Americans. Such symbols are inherently threatening and significantly alter the workplace environment for Black Americans,” Elizabeth Owen, a senior trial attorney in the EEOC’s New Orleans field office, said in the release.
“Even isolated displays of racially threatening symbols are unacceptable in American workplaces,” Michael Kirkland, director of the EEOC’s New Orleans field office, said in a statement.
Why doesn’t the DOJ investigate the nooses and find the culprits?
Exxon says it has a “zero tolerance policy of any form of harassment or discrimination in the workplace.”
“We encourage employees to report claims like this, and we thoroughly investigated,” the company told CBS. “The symbols of hate are unacceptable, offensive, and in violation of our corporate policies.”
Zero tolerance for anything is absurd.
The EEOC goal could be to make money or damage EXXON. It sounds like a hoax.
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