Sexual Harassment Never Okay
Update! – The lawyer’s name from the NPR interview is Aliza Herzberg.
Isiah Thomas, former NBA star and current coach of the New York Knicks, has been found liable for damages from sexual harassment charges. His employer is forced to pay over 11 million dollars to the victim, Anucha Browne Sanders. Allegations include Thomas calling Browne Sanders a “brown bitch” and later saying that that was okay. This, though awful, isn’t a huge thing, as sexual harassment goes on all the time. I’ve seen it here at work. Most of the time, that which could be construed as harassment isn’t unwelcome and thus nothing is done. Thomas didn’t get so lucky.
But the real story is some comments from a lawyer NPR had on Morning Edition this morning. This lawyer, who specializes in sexual harassment, suggested that in some offices, Thomas’ actions would have been just fine. She mentioned the “rap” world as a place where calling a female a “brown bitch” would be completely tolerated and thus, she implied, not grounds for a lawsuit. She also said that someone working at HBO had better be tolerant of sexual language as a lot of HBO shows contain that kind of language.
I stopped for a second (though kept driving) and thought, what the hell is this woman talking about? Are you telling me that a defense for a sexual harassment lawsuit against a Hip-Hop executive would be something like, “because artists say those things in their music, it’s fine for me to call a woman a bitch”? She seemed to be suggesting that the plaintiff’s lawyers would throw up their hands in defeat – “Well, that’s that. Their perfect logic wins again!” Or what about HBO? Because a character on a show uses inappropriate language, it’s fine in a professional workplace? Where did this woman go to law school?
Now, I understand that if you are working at HBO and someone comes up to you with a script and asks, “What do you think? Should he call her a ‘brown bitch’?”, you probably aren’t going to have grounds for sexual harassment. Similarly, if it’s a Hip-Hop record label and someone is playing music from an artist on the label that happens to contain sexually charged lyrics, you may not be able to sue and win. But if a woman is being treated inappropriately in a workplace, ANY WORKPLACE, she will absolutely have grounds for a lawsuit. It doesn’t matter if she works for Def Jam Records, HBO, or Northwestern Mutual – she has the right to be treated with respect and to not have unwelcome advances towards her. Men too, for that matter.
So, lawyer woman, whoever you are, get your facts straight or stop practicing law. Otherwise, feel free to go and defend Isiah Thomas. I think he maybe could use representation from someone like you.
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October 3rd, 2007 17:44
You skipped the more important allegation, which was that he propositioned her for sex. Calling someone a bitch doesn’t constitute sexual harassment under a reasonable reading of the law. “Sexual harassment” is not equivalent to “sexism” or “gender harassment”.
October 14th, 2007 05:28
Sexual harassment is not truly illegal, which is why this case went to civil court, not criminal court. That being said, yes, the sex proposition is a big part, but I mostly wanted to discuss this lawyer who seemed to feel that in some workplaces, it would be acceptable for women to be addressed as “bitch.”