The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is suing an Indiana nursing home for racist practices, including allowing harassment toward Black employees, the Indianapolis Star reported.
In a claim filed Tuesday, the EEOC said Hamilton Point nursing home in Evansville, Indiana, did not allow Black employees to enter the rooms of residents who expressed a “preference for non-Black caregivers.”
The EEOC also said employees were “called and/or referred to by terms such as ‘nigger,’ ‘boy,’ and ‘nappy.’”
Six former and current Black employees of the nursing home said complaints to management about their treatment went unaddressed. The EEOC claims the employers of the Hamilton Point are in violation of workers’ civil rights.
Kenneth Lee Bird, a regional attorney for the EEOC’s Indianapolis District Office, expressed incredulity that the nursing home employers “still do not understand that it is unacceptable to honor the discriminatory racial preferences of some or any of their customers.”
“When this practice is coupled with racial harassment, it’s even worse,” Bird said in a press release. “The EEOC will continue to take all the necessary steps to vigorously challenge these unlawful practices.”
H/T the Root