For harassment in the workplace to be unlawful it must be shown to be based on some sort of discriminatory criteria such as race. Recently, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided a case, EEOC v. Central Wholesalers, No. 1181 (July 21, 2009), where the court found the following to be sufficient evidence that race motivated the harassment:
"The evidence also shows that a number of Medley's co-workers (Medley was the employee harassed) used the work n****r in her presence on a regular basis, and at least one co-worker used the word 'pretty much everyday.' Moreover, [a co-worker] called Medley a black stupid n****r and other racially derogatory terms during the November 10 incident. In addition, both Tony [another co-worker] and DaBay kept blue-colored mop-head dolls in their offices and had the dolls hanging from noose which were tied around the dolls' necks. Given this evidence, a reasonable jury could conclude that the harassment was also based on Medley's race."
