The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing an Indiana nursing home for subjecting its black employees to harassment and honoring the racist preferences of its residents.
The Indianapolis Star reports that the claim was filed Tuesday.
The EEOC charges that Hamilton Pointe nursing home in Evansville, Ind., blocked its black employees from entering the rooms of residents who had expressed a “preference for non-black caregivers.”
Hamilton Pointe is also alleged to have exposed its black workers to harassment based on their race. The EEOC suit says that employees were “called and/or referred to by terms such as ‘nigger,’ ‘boy,’ and ‘nappy.’” This behavior was apparently condoned by the nursing home.
Hamilton Pointe, by allowing its residents to harass and discriminate against its black employees, violated its workers’ civil rights, the EEOC says.
Kenneth Lee Bird, a regional attorney for the EEOC’s Indianapolis office, said in an EEOC press release that it was incomprehensible 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 added. “The EEOC will continue to take all the necessary steps to vigorously challenge these unlawful practices.”
Read more at Ihe Indianapolis Star.