Opinion ID: 464614
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Racial Harassment at the Correction Facility

Text: 36 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2(a)(1) provides that an employer may not discriminate against any individual with respect to ... terms, conditions or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race. It is well-established in other Circuits that a working environment overrun by racial antagonism constitutes a Title VII violation. Gilbert v. City of Little Rock, 722 F.2d 1390 (8th Cir.1983); Walker v. Ford Motor Co., 684 F.2d 1355 (11th Cir.1982); Johnson v. Bunny Bread Co., 646 F.2d 1250 (8th Cir.1981). The Fifth Circuit put it succinctly, a discriminatory and offensive work environment so heavily polluted with discrimination as to destroy completely the emotional and psychological stability of minority group workers may constitute a violation of Title VII. Vaughn v. Pool Offshore Co., 683 F.2d 922, 924 (5th Cir.1982) (quoting Rogers v. EEOC, 454 F.2d 234, 238 (5th Cir.1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 957, 92 S.Ct. 2058, 32 L.Ed.2d 343 (1972)). 37 To establish a hostile atmosphere, however, plaintiffs must prove more than a few isolated incidents of racial enmity. Gilbert, supra, 722 F.2d at 1394; EEOC v. Murphy Motor Freight Lines, Inc., 488 F.Supp. 381, 384 (D.Minn.1980). Casual comments, or accidental or sporadic conversation, will not trigger equitable relief pursuant to the statute. See Cariddi v. Kansas City Chiefs Football Club, Inc., 568 F.2d 87, 88 (8th Cir.1977); Winfrey v. Metropolitan Utilities Dist., 467 F.Supp. 56, 60-61 (D.Neb.1979). In sum, the alleged harassment must be sufficiently pervasive ... to ... create an abusive working environment. Henson v. City of Dundee, 682 F.2d 897, 904 (11th Cir.1982). Whether racial acrimony in a particular institution is sufficiently pervasive to constitute a Title VII violation is to be determined from the totality of the circumstances. Id. at 904. 38 We agree with Chief Judge Weinstein that a racially hostile environment existed at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility. The record clearly supports his finding that the proliferation of demeaning literature and epithets was sufficiently continuous and pervasive to establish a concerted pattern of harassment in violation of Title VII. Snell, supra, 611 F.Supp. at 526 (quoting Fekete v. United States Steel Corp., 353 F.Supp. 1177, 1186 (W.D.Pa.1973)). 10 39 In light of this compelling evidence, we reject appellants' contention that the scurrilous postings and racial epithets occurred only sporadically and did not rise to the level of a Title VII violation. Moreover, their reliance on Vaughn v. Pool Offshore Co., 683 F.2d 922 (5th Cir.1982), is misplaced. Although the environment in most of our nation's correction institutions may properly be characterized as coarse and rowdy, this case, unlike Vaughn, does not present circumstances involving instances of humiliating acts shared by all.