Opinion ID: 791934
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Racial Harassment — Hostile Work Environment

Text: 15 Finally, Singletary contends that he has produced sufficient evidence to withstand summary judgment with regard to his claim of a racially driven hostile work environment. To establish a Title VII race-based hostile work environment claim, a plaintiff must show that: (1) he or she is a member of a protected group; (2) he or she is subjected to unwelcome race-based harassment; (3) the harassment was because of membership in the protected group; and (4) the harassment affected a term, condition, or privilege of his or her employment. Diaz v. Swift-Eckrich, Inc., 318 F.3d 796, 800 (8th Cir.2003). In this case it is clear that Singletary, as an African-American, is a member of a protected group. Furthermore, Singletary's allegations, if proven, would show that he was referred to by derogatory names in the workplace. 16 This claim turns on whether the harassment alleged by Singletary affected a term, condition, or privilege of his employment. Harassment which is severe and pervasive is deemed to affect a term, condition, or privilege of employment. Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998). For harassment to affect a condition of employment the conduct must be severe as it would be viewed objectively by a reasonable person and as it was actually viewed subjectively by the victim. Howard v. Burns Bros., Inc., 149 F.3d 835, 840 (8th Cir.1998). Hostile work environment harassment occurs when the workplace is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment. Tademe v. Saint Cloud State Univ., 328 F.3d 982, 991 (8th Cir.2003) (internal quotations omitted). To decide whether a work environment is objectively offensive, that is, one which a reasonable person would find hostile or abusive, we examine all the circumstances, including the frequency of the discriminatory conduct, its severity, whether it is physically threatening or humiliating or a mere offensive utterance, and whether the conduct unreasonably interfered with the employee's work performance. Bainbridge v. Loffredo Gardens, Inc., 378 F.3d 756, 759 (8th Cir.2004). 17 The district court heavily relied on Tademe where we held that the evidence was insufficient to establish a hostile work environment because it merely showed that the harassment stemmed from inter-departmental politics and personality conflicts. Tademe, 328 F.3d at 991. Likewise, the record in this case shows that many of the difficulties stemming from Singletary's position as an Investigator resulted from departmental politics between the administrators. More specifically, Singletary's position as an internal investigator was often at odds with other employees of the Department. Singletary, however, points out that racially-derogatory terms and phrases were common place at WMCC. Specifically, Singletary had information, although not first-hand, that some workers and managers had referred to him as a nigger when talking with others. We have held that racial slurs alone do not render a work environment hostile as a matter of law. Loffredo Gardens, Inc., 378 F.3d at 759-60. In Loffredo Gardens, we stated: 18 Under our case law, the racial slurs did not render the work environment ... objectively hostile. For example, ... we held six instances of racially derogatory language from managers and coworkers over the course of a year and a half, together with burning cross graffiti, did not render the workplace objectively hostile. Although managers and coworkers said, that damn nigger, damn black, nigger s t, radio, nigger-rigging, and f  ing nigger, we pointed out two of the comments were not made to the plaintiff, two were not referring directly to him, and another was made in the heat of an altercation involving threats by the plaintiff. 19 Id. (citations omitted). This case is no more severe than those facts referred to in Loffredo Gardens; but see Ross v. Douglas County, Nebraska, 234 F.3d 391 (8th Cir.2000) (holding that a supervisor's constant use of racial epithets towards a black employee was sufficient to create racially hostile work environment in violation of Title VII). Here, none of the comments were made directly to Singletary. Furthermore, when supervisors learned of one incident, the responsible employee was demoted. Racial epithets are morally repulsive. But our cases require that a plaintiff show more than an a few occurrences over a course of years. To be actionable, such conduct must be shown to occur with such frequency that the very conditions of employment are altered and be viewed by a reasonable person as hostile. 20 Other than these comments made to others, Singletary relies on the fact that his vehicle was vandalized on several occasions. The district court concluded that any connection between the vandalism and racial comments was too speculative to create a question of fact for the jury. The Seventh Circuit has explained that for conduct to be considered in a race-based hostile work environment claim, the conduct must have a racial character or purpose to support a hostile work environment claim. Luckie v. Ameritech Corp., 389 F.3d 708, 713 (7th Cir.2004). Acts of apparently indiscriminate vandalism do not have sufficient racial character to establish a hostile work environment without proof that race motivated the conduct.