Opinion ID: 2653538
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Three Comments by Rollins

Text: The first of Rollins’ comments was made after a conference call in July 2008 with leaders of the plant in Guadalajara, Mexico, concerning a request by Volkswagen of Mexico for an audit that could result in a price reduction (and a loss of revenue to Henniges). After ending the call, a frustrated and angry Rollins shouted, “those fucking wetbacks.” Plaintiff addressed Rollins in “a light hearted way,” explaining that the term “wetback” did not actually refer to Mexican nationals in Mexico but to those who, like his family, came across the border into the United States. Describing Rollins as embarrassed and apologetic, Trujillo admitted “that he did not communicate that Rollins’s comment offended him, let alone that he was complaining about the racial or ethnic character of the conduct.” Trujillo, 495 F. App’x at 654. The second comments came during the trip to Europe the first week of September 2008. Trujillo decided to approach Rollins to discuss difficulties that existed between Juan Perez, the controller of the plant in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Wayne Campbell, a friend of Rollins and the finance manager for both of the Mexican plants. Attributing the difficulties to Campbell’s No. 13-1376 7 aggressive management style, Trujillo asked if Rollins would talk to Campbell about “maybe softening his style with Juan” and suggested that a typical American or German manager’s style is “very intimidating and very unnerving” to Latin American employees. Rollins interrupted him and said, “Fuck that cultural bullshit, Scott, and tell Juan to grow up.” Trujillo testified that he understood Rollins to mean that Perez should “step up and not be so sensitive.” Trujillo responded to Rollins by saying, “I’ll talk with Juan about acclimating to Wayne’s style and I’ll try to keep the peace,” and then “exited the conversation as quickly as [he] could.”. Finally, the third comment was made during a meeting on the same or the next day when “Rollins mentioned that he would be missing his son’s football game but was not that upset since the team would be losing to a team of ‘brothas.’” Trujillo testified that he corrected Rollins by asking whether he was referring to African Americans. Appearing annoyed, Rollins answered, “Yeah, Scott, the brothers.” Rollins did not make a big issue out of it, and nothing else was said. As we concluded in the first appeal, nothing in Trujillo’s responses to Rollins could reasonably be construed as opposition to the alleged racial or ethnic character of the “wetback,” “cultural bullshit,” or “brothers” comments. Trujillo, 495 F. App’x at 654.