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Black engineer sues ABC News for discrimination 
A former ABC News employee, Oswald Wilson, filed suit on Monday, Feb. 11, alleging racial discrimination. A pair of dolls hung near his work station for more than two and a half years. (Photo by Patrick McCarthy)
Black engineer sues ABC News for discrimination
BY CARA TABACHNICK
Special to Newsday
February 13, 2008
Oswald Wilson cannot get the image out his mind - a black doll hanging by the neck in front of his desk at ABC News in Manhattan. A stuffed animal hung from a noose nearby.
"Every time I held up my head, it sent chills down my spine," said Wilson, a black engineer who has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit accusing his supervisors of allowing a hostile work environment. "They believe they are above the law, that they can do whatever they want do. But they have violated my civil rights."
At first, Wilson said in an exclusive and tearful interview with Newsday, he did what most in his position would do: He complained to his bosses. But he said all they did was tell him he had no reason to complain because the dolls were not in his work area. Then, he said they transferred him to another location, let the dolls hang there untouched even after he returned and drove him into such a deep depression he had to take a medical leave, although he is still employed by ABC News. He said he took the abuse as long as he could before suing.
But ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover said that there was "absolutely no tolerance for discrimination" and that the doll was nothing more than a Mardi Gras voodoo doll displayed by Wilson himself and other workers, to place a hex on a supervisor. Wilson denied that.
"I couldn't believe this was happening to me and I decided to say enough is enough," he said. "... My blood pressure was through the roof. I thought I was going to have a heart attack."
He said the harassment began in February 2004, when Wilson, 49, of Freehold, N.J., was assigned to ABC's Broadcast and Engineering Division. He said he celebrated Black History Month by placing at his desk a picture of his son, Bryant, now 22, with one of the Tuskegee Airmen, plus a newspaper article about the month's celebrations.
The following month, Wilson said manager Charles Zanlunghi Jr. told him, "You need to take the picture down. It's now White Aryan Nation Month."
Zanlunghi could not be reached for comment, but Gilbert Valentin, 65, a veteran ABC engineer who retired in 2006, said he witnessed the exchange.
"I told Ozzie, 'I don't know how you can take this,'" Valentin said. "... They just don't want him there and they can't get rid of him outright, so they just harass him."
The dolls were finally removed in October 2006, when Wilson was transferred back to his original location and told his bosses a co-worker had photographed it, the suit said.
Wilson said he had to go to the head of ABC News human resources, Brendan Burke, to get that to happen.
Burke refused to comment.
Wilson filed the suit this week in the wake of the recent spate in the city and elsewhere of noose-hangings. He said he could have left quietly in December when ABC News offered him $100,000 in a settlement to quit his $85,000-a-year job.
Wilson, who is Jamaican, started at ABC News in 1989, first as a temporary maintenance engineer in the sports division, where he worked on location repairing satellite trucks. He was hired permanently in 1991 and assigned to the Electronic News Gathering Division as the only black staff engineer. He loved his work, he said.
Wilson said he doesn't know what he will do next, but he is sure of one thing.
"I am through with working with them," he said.
Staff writer Rocco Parascandola contributed to this story, which was supplemented with
A former ABC News employee, Oswald Wilson, filed suit on Monday, Feb. 11, alleging racial discrimination. A pair of dolls hung near his work station for more than two and a half years. (Photo by Patrick McCarthy)
Black engineer sues ABC News for discrimination
BY CARA TABACHNICK
Special to Newsday
February 13, 2008
Oswald Wilson cannot get the image out his mind - a black doll hanging by the neck in front of his desk at ABC News in Manhattan. A stuffed animal hung from a noose nearby.
"Every time I held up my head, it sent chills down my spine," said Wilson, a black engineer who has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit accusing his supervisors of allowing a hostile work environment. "They believe they are above the law, that they can do whatever they want do. But they have violated my civil rights."
At first, Wilson said in an exclusive and tearful interview with Newsday, he did what most in his position would do: He complained to his bosses. But he said all they did was tell him he had no reason to complain because the dolls were not in his work area. Then, he said they transferred him to another location, let the dolls hang there untouched even after he returned and drove him into such a deep depression he had to take a medical leave, although he is still employed by ABC News. He said he took the abuse as long as he could before suing.
But ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover said that there was "absolutely no tolerance for discrimination" and that the doll was nothing more than a Mardi Gras voodoo doll displayed by Wilson himself and other workers, to place a hex on a supervisor. Wilson denied that.
"I couldn't believe this was happening to me and I decided to say enough is enough," he said. "... My blood pressure was through the roof. I thought I was going to have a heart attack."
He said the harassment began in February 2004, when Wilson, 49, of Freehold, N.J., was assigned to ABC's Broadcast and Engineering Division. He said he celebrated Black History Month by placing at his desk a picture of his son, Bryant, now 22, with one of the Tuskegee Airmen, plus a newspaper article about the month's celebrations.
The following month, Wilson said manager Charles Zanlunghi Jr. told him, "You need to take the picture down. It's now White Aryan Nation Month."
Zanlunghi could not be reached for comment, but Gilbert Valentin, 65, a veteran ABC engineer who retired in 2006, said he witnessed the exchange.
"I told Ozzie, 'I don't know how you can take this,'" Valentin said. "... They just don't want him there and they can't get rid of him outright, so they just harass him."
The dolls were finally removed in October 2006, when Wilson was transferred back to his original location and told his bosses a co-worker had photographed it, the suit said.
Wilson said he had to go to the head of ABC News human resources, Brendan Burke, to get that to happen.
Burke refused to comment.
Wilson filed the suit this week in the wake of the recent spate in the city and elsewhere of noose-hangings. He said he could have left quietly in December when ABC News offered him $100,000 in a settlement to quit his $85,000-a-year job.
Wilson, who is Jamaican, started at ABC News in 1989, first as a temporary maintenance engineer in the sports division, where he worked on location repairing satellite trucks. He was hired permanently in 1991 and assigned to the Electronic News Gathering Division as the only black staff engineer. He loved his work, he said.
Wilson said he doesn't know what he will do next, but he is sure of one thing.
"I am through with working with them," he said.
Staff writer Rocco Parascandola contributed to this story, which was supplemented with
Who knows mi probably would "bun" it in the garbage bin
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