Black Worker Awarded $25 Million in Racial Lawsuit

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.

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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.

But the jury unanimously decided that the company and some of its executives were liable.

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