How many racial slurs does it take to create a hostile work environment? That depends on which court hears the case, as Eric B. Meyer writes on The Employer Handbook.
Meyer says African-American female Reya Boyer-Liberto filed a hostile work environment lawsuit against Fountainebleu Corp. after a coworker allegedly referred to her as a “porch monkey” twice in two days. Meyer says that while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit noted that the term was racially derogatory and highly offensive, it wasn’t enough to create a hostile work environment.
