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A black steelworker has been awarded $25 million in damages after a federal jury ruled his former company didn't do enough to stop years of racial slurs and taunting by his co-workers.
According to the Buffalo News, Elijah Turley testified during the trial that colleagues at the Buffalo-area plant called him "boy" and left a stuffed monkey with a noose around its neck on his car's driver's side mirror. He also recalled seeing "KKK" and "King Kong" scrawled on the factory's walls.
[Related: Ga. denies KKK application to adopt highway]
"It's absolutely shocking that a case like this is in court in 2012," Ryan J. Mills, Turley's lawyer, said in closing arguments. "It should be viewed as atrocious and intolerable in a civilized society."
Lawyers for ArcelorMittal countered that company officials suspended Turley's co-workers and took other steps to stop the harassment. The newspaper reported they also suggested that a lot of what Turley endured was "trash-talking" that's common on factory floors.
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But the jury unanimously decided that the company and some of its executives were liable.
"This case is about the breakdown of a man," Mills told the jury. "He wanted to be treated equally, treated equally in a culture that hadn't changed since the '50s."
It is not known if the company will appeal the ruling, the Buffalo News reported.
According to the Buffalo News, Elijah Turley testified during the trial that colleagues at the Buffalo-area plant called him "boy" and left a stuffed monkey with a noose around its neck on his car's driver's side mirror. He also recalled seeing "KKK" and "King Kong" scrawled on the factory's walls.
[Related: Ga. denies KKK application to adopt highway]
"It's absolutely shocking that a case like this is in court in 2012," Ryan J. Mills, Turley's lawyer, said in closing arguments. "It should be viewed as atrocious and intolerable in a civilized society."
Lawyers for ArcelorMittal countered that company officials suspended Turley's co-workers and took other steps to stop the harassment. The newspaper reported they also suggested that a lot of what Turley endured was "trash-talking" that's common on factory floors.
[Related: Madonna sparks outrage with swastika stunt]
But the jury unanimously decided that the company and some of its executives were liable.
"This case is about the breakdown of a man," Mills told the jury. "He wanted to be treated equally, treated equally in a culture that hadn't changed since the '50s."
It is not known if the company will appeal the ruling, the Buffalo News reported.