2 Black Garbage Workers Win $2.6 Million Each in Racial Bias Suit

Delbert Gaskins and Arnold White said they couldn't believe the constant racial slurs and offensive jokes from their white supervisors at BFI Waste Services LLC.  "It was like a racist little club," said Christopher E. Brown, an attorney for the men. "They were humiliated, demeaned and mocked." A federal jury in Alexandria agreed. Last week, a majority-white jury awarded $2.6 million each to Gaskins, 46, and White, 49, in a lawsuit against BFI. Legal experts said it is the largest racial discrimination verdict won by individuals in Virginia history and one of the larger discrimination verdicts nationwide.  "This is a big verdict nationally as well as locally," said Joseph Sellers, who runs the civil rights law practice at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll in the District. "It may also rank among the worst in terms of treatment in the workplace. This is what you might have expected back in the 1960s. These are Jim Crow types of phrases."  Court documents accused former BFI supervisors of using racial epithets to describe them and other African American garbagemen. Brown said those words included the most insulting slurs and even comparisons to animals.  Gaskins, whose wife is white, said in the suit that he was asked by one of his bosses at BFI's former Merrifield division why African Americans were taking all of the white women. Brown said supervisors constantly criticized the men's work in ways they would not use with white drivers, often muttering racial epithets under their breath. The supervisors also are accused of telling racist jokes in the office.  In their lawsuit, the men allege that a black woman who worked in the office was referred to as a "black whore" and a "hooker."  "These supervisors did not like the fact that black men who were uneducated were making more money than they were," said Brown. [more]