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Mauricia Grant, who is black, worked as a technical inspector responsible for certifying cars in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series from January 2005 until she was fired last October.
Grant alleged she was referred to as “Nappy Headed Mo” and “Queen Sheba,” by co-workers, was often told she worked on “colored people time,” and was frightened by one official who routinely made references to the Ku Klux Klan.
In addition, Grant said she was subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers, two of whom allegedly exposed themselves to her, and graphic and lewd jokes.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, lists multiple incidents of alleged sexual harassment and alleged racial discrimination beginning when she was hired in January 2005 thru her October firing.
“NASCAR perpetuated, condoned and actively participated in perverted and disgusting sexual conduct designed to demean and diminish [Grant] and the handful of other women employed by NASCAR as officials,” according to the suit.
Grant, said in the suit she was fired for her “poor work performance” but said she had received positive performance evaluations and had received no warnings aside from one about her use of “street” language.
Yet, she contends in the suit that NASCAR officials would send her obscene e-mails or text messages, such as this from official David Duke last November: “I love all Yall mofos, i am that (racial epithet), HAHAHA, Holla, PIMPALICIOUS.” Or, she contends, Duke would say in her presence, “What up, my (racial epithet)?”
When she complained to NASCAR officials, Grant said, “I was basically told to deal with it because the men that I was working with, a lot of them were military men and I needed to learn how to act like they act if I wanted to be successful.
“I felt like I was in it by myself and that I had to make an attitude adjustment. It hurt because I basically just tried to do my job and tried to avoid co-workers. I was hurt and disgusted by the whole thing.”
Grant said she and another female co-worker drafted an anonymous letter in 2006 to NASCAR’s Human Resources department, detailing some complaints. She said the letter was discussed by colleagues and it was thought to come from somewhere else, but that another female official was eventually fired.
“I don’t want this (lawsuit) to be my legacy as the first African-American female to do this job,” Grant, who has not worked since the firing.
Now she’s suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
“I loved it. It was a great, exciting, adrenaline-filled job where I worked with fast cars and the best drivers in the world,” Grant said. “But there was an ongoing daily pattern (of harassment). It was the nature of the people I worked with, the people who ran it, it trickled down from the top.
“It’s just the way things are in the garage.”
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the organization had not yet reviewed the suit.
“As an equal opportunity employer, NASCAR is fully committed to the spirit and letter of affirmative action law,” Poston said, adding NASCAR has a zero tolerance policy for harassment.
“It is time for NASCAR to realize that not everbody is going to be bought off and not file a complaint,” said Grant’s attorney, Benedict P. Morelli of Morelli Ratner PC. “Not everybody is going to be intimidated and not file a complaint. Not everybody is going to be blackballed and not file a complaint.”
“My supervisors all praised me. I was hanging in there with the guys,” she said. “I am an athletic person. I went over the wall and faced malicious crews and competitive crew chiefs, and I was right there and held it down and was never lazy about it.
“And I knew that once I was terminated, there wasn’t going to be an opportunity for me to find another industry like NASCAR to practice my craft.”
UPDATE: June 13, 2008 10:48 am
The type of lawsuit she has filed — in which Grant cited a pattern of racial and sexual harassment by co-workers and tolerance by managers — is lost more often than won.
“It’s a very fascinating case to the legal community as well as the racing community,” said Jeff Hayes, a Wauwatosa lawyer with 23 years of experience in employee law.
“Any routine case is placed under a microscope and magnified 10,000 times when it happens in the sports world.”
At the time Grant was hired in 2005, she was the only female African-American to work as an inspector in what was then known as the Busch Series.
Grant alleged in a federal suit filed this week that she was routinely the target of slurs and unwanted sexual advances and that her complaints not only went unheeded but ultimately led to her firing in October 2007.
“She cites a couple specific slurs, and you don’t tend to get that,” Hayes said. “So the chance of getting to a jury is very good, and if it survives a motion to dismiss, it will be a stark wake-up call to auto racing.”
“Typical sexual/racial discrimination cases don’t come generally even close to (Grant’s) number,” said James Scott, a lawyer for Lindner & Marsack, a Milwaukee firm that represents employers in workplace suits.
“It has to be a really egregious situation if somebody gets $2 million.”
In about 70% of these types of cases, the employer wins when the case is dismissed, Scott estimated. Another 25% settle and fewer than 5% go to trial.
NASCAR will request dismissal, Scott said. Should the judge rule that the case has merit to proceed, NASCAR could take its chances on a trial or it could settle. How it would proceed depends on its likelihood of winning and its tolerance for bad publicity that could linger for years.
“The crux of this suit is whether NASCAR had the ability to separate the culture of competition from the culture of racism and sexism,” Hynes said.
Whether she wins or not, Mauricia Grant will make sure that it does.
