AT&T Sued, Exec Fired Over Racist Text Messages AT&T this week was hit with a lawsuit (pdf) for racial discrimination that has resulted in AT&T firing a key U-Verse executive for sending racist text messages around the office. The lawsuit was filed by Knoyme King, a 50-year-old African-American woman and a 30-year employee of AT&T. King accuses AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, U-Verse executive Aaron Slator, and other AT&T brass of cultivating an environment of racism at the telecom giant.

King claims that she "witnessed-and experienced race and age discrimination and harassment" while at AT&T, and was passed over repeatedly for promotion due to her age, gender and race. King, currently a content coordinator in AT&T's U-Verse group, is seeking $100 million in damages. At the heart of the lawsuit are two photos that were found by assistants on the phone of U-Verse President Aaron Slator. We won't post or describe them here, but they can be found in the body of the suit itself (pdf). King and her lawyer claim the AT&T board intentionally ignored complaints when the content of the photos were brought to their attention. "Aaron Slator has been terminated," AT&T said in a brief statement. "There is no place for demeaning behavior within AT&T and we regret the action was not taken earlier." However, the suit claims that racism at AT&T goes much further than Slator. "Slator's discriminatory animus is part of a course of conduct at AT&T that has been condoned, encouraged and ratified throughout the years by the highest levels at AT&T," claims the suit. The filing goes on to claim that "AT&T took no action to reprimand Slator, to train or educate him, or to curb his racism. To the contrary, AT&T engaged in a deliberate cover-up of Slator' s racism." King-v-ATT







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Rob

Premium Member

join:2001-08-25

Miami, FL 3 recommendations Rob Premium Member After reading the lawsuit, I agree with Knoyme King First, I do not believe that using the "n" word as depicted in the image is racist, because it's used almost all the time by members of many black communities throughout the United States.



Second, the images were NOT sent to Knoyme King, but rather, she found them on the executive's phone after he asked her to transfer all the contents to a new phone.



With that said, after reading the lawsuit, I do believe that Knyome King was unfairly targeted. Age is a very sensitive matter to many people, either they feel they are "too young" to get a great job, or they are "too old". The lawsuit claims that she was told she's "too old" for a upper-level position, and questioned on why she was working to earn her MBA, for example. She, according to the suite, received raises per year that were significantly less than others in similar positions, despite her 30-years of service!



However, I do not believe she was unfairly targeted because of her race, but rather, because of her age. Either way, it's wrong, and I hope she wins a substantial amount of money so that she doesn't have to work again and her 30-years of loyal employment with AT&T was worth it. plat2on1

join:2002-08-21

Hopewell Junction, NY 3 recommendations plat2on1 Member really? internet memes = racism now?