A former official in the NASCAR Nationwide series, Mauricia Grant, 32, filed a lawsuit this week claiming she was harrassed by co-workers because she's black and a woman, and that repeated complaints to her supervisor had no effect.
She was fired, an action she calls "unlawful," because, Grant claims, it was done in retaliation for her complaints. She's asking for $250 million in her lawsuit.
Grant was a technical inspector from January 2005 until October 2007. Her 40-page lawsuit lists 23 alleged incidents of sexual harassment and 34 alleged incidents of racial and gender discrimination.
The filing says Grant was recongized by supervisors as a good employee, but that "despite Plaintiff's skills and performance as an Official, Defendant NASCAR maintains an unwritten yet unflagging policy limiting the advancement of Black and female employees, and especially limiting the advancement of Black female employees"
Grant was the only black official at the time.
She claims co-workers routinely called her insutling nicknames: 'Mohammed" "Nappy Headed Mo;" "Queen Sheba;" "Al Qaeda;" 'Black Sisters Revenge;" "Mo from the Block;" "Molicious;" and "Simpleton."
She also alleges that an official, David Duke, once greeted her by saying, "What up, my nigga?"
Finally, Grant says she was fired for "poor work performance," despite the fact that she'd received good reviews previously and had never been warned about the issue before she was terminated.
There are lots of other nasty allegations in the lawsuit, which you can read here.
The official word from NASCAR is that it won't comment on the pending litigation.
This lawsuit is potentially disasterous for a sport which has been trying to shake its image of a "good ol' Southern boy" background for years. It still struggles with fans who want to display the Confederate flag in the infield during race--although CEO Brian France criticized it on national TV, it is still a common site at races, especially in the South.
The Drive for Diversity Program started in 2004 hasn't had much of an impact in bringing non-whites into NASCAR, and this will only slow that process. There's no black driver currently running in any of the NASCAR's top three series, although there are black pit crew members on several teams.
The stands at any given race are filled with an overwhelmingly white crowd.
Look for NASCAR to settle this quickly, if only to get it out of the headlines faster.
Obviously, most writers will not take an editorial position on such a hot-button issue.
I don't have the personal experience to judge for myself, either, but I will say this: the specificity found in Grant's lawsuit is tough to discount.