![]() He said the harassment he’s faced has interfered with his health and his ability to do his job.īrown said he took the step of filing a lawsuit to force the U of I to hold those who harass people accountable for their actions. “Sometimes, I used my benefit days just to not go to work and deal with it.” “I hated to come to work at some points,” he said. The campus investigative report, according to the lawsuit, concluded that while the conduct attributed to Brown’s supervisor “does not meet the high standards needed to state a claim for racial harassment under the campus’ nondiscrimination policy,” the evidence did show “a gross violation of the spirit of the University’s Code of Conduct policy.”īrown said the racially motivated harassment is ongoing. But a campus investigation, which concluded in 2017, found the alleged racial harassment didn’t violate campus nondiscrimination policies, Brown said. “And all the other white guys in my shop - everybody just started laughing,” Brown said.īrown said his supervisor laughed at the incident - and racially harassed Brown himself on multiple occasions.īrown said he filed a formal complaint with the U of I’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Access. In an interview with Illinois Public Media, Brown said a white coworker on a job site in August 2015 “cut out a rag off a sheet and cut holes in it and put it over his head like the KKK.” Plaintiff Derick Brown, 55, has worked in the U of I’s Facilities and Services department since 2006, according to the lawsuit. “ We will review any allegations or claims with counsel as soon as we receive them.” ![]() ![]() “Discrimination of any kind has no place at the University of Illinois,” Kaler said. U of I spokesperson Robin Kaler said in an email the campus hadn’t received the lawsuit as of Tuesday afternoon, and that the university takes all allegations of inappropriate conduct seriously. ![]() UIUC supervisors and other employees frequently use racial slurs and offensive stereotypes, calling black employees ‘n*ggers,’ ‘boy,’ ‘monkey,’ ‘lazy,’ ‘angry,’ ‘rowdy,’ and ‘Aunt Jemima,’ and using other offensive racial language." Lawsuit filed against U of I The lawsuit also claims the U of I’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Access (now known as the Office For Access and Equity or OAE) - the department in charge of investigating discrimination claims - is itself “rife with internal racial harassment.” "UIUC supervisors and other employees frequently use racial slurs and offensive stereotypes, calling black employees ‘n*ggers,’ ‘boy,’ ‘monkey,’ ‘lazy,’ ‘angry,’ ‘rowdy,’ and ‘Aunt Jemima,’ and using other offensive racial language.”Īttorney Joshua Friedman, who represents the plaintiffs, said the U of I’s non-discrimination policy allows this kind of harassment because the campus considers these incidents not severe or pervasive enough to violate the policy. The lawsuit also alleges staff members used racial slurs and other racially charged language against black workers: The plaintiffs allege in court documents racial harassment is U of I’s “standard operating procedure.”īlack employees at the U of I were “exposed to threats of racial violence, such as nooses, swastikas, KKK garb, racist graffiti, and confederate flags,” according to the lawsuit. A lawsuit filed Monday in federal court includes numerous allegations of racial harassment of black employees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ![]()
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