In Smith & Sneed v. P.A.M. Transport, the court reversed summary judgment for the employer and sent the case to trial.
A few big points jumped out.
1. Words matter. The panel had no trouble recognizing "monkey" (and variants like "monkey ass") as a racial slur when aimed at Black workers. You don't need code-breaking to see the racial meaning; history supplies the context.
2. Context matters, too. The court didn' silo the slur from everything else. It looked at the totality — repeated slurs by supervisors, yelling, threats, longer routes, worse trucks — and said a jury could find the conduct severe or pervasive.
3. Same-race harasser? Still actionable. Title VII can be violated by members of the same protected class. The fact that one supervisor was Black didn't cleanse the language or its impact.
4. Comparators are fair game without DNA tests. The district court demanded proof that co-workers were "non-African American" (as distinct from "white"). The 6th Circuit called foul: jurors can rely on ordinary evidence and perception to assess race in the workplace.
5. Manager speech hits harder. Slurs from supervisors carry extra weight. One egregious incident can be enough; multiple incidents certainly can be.
Policies on paper aren't enough. The employer pointed to its anti-harassment policy. The court looked for proof it actually worked — training, enforcement, prompt corrective action — and didn't see it.
This was not a novel expansion of the law. Arguing that "monkey" was just colorful language is a legal loser. It's also a big failure of workplace culture. If you need a lawsuit to remind of this fact, your business has some serious soul-searching to do. And that's no monkey business.