Being the mother of two sons, it's hard not compare them. The minute Rhys was born, we pulled out Ethan's baby photos to see how alike they were. While I'm sure we're not alone in comparing our children, I often remind myself that comparing my sons is like comparing apples and oranges – they are simultaneously similar and different, depending on your point of view.
In Hernandez v. Yellow Transportation, Inc., the Plaintiffs tried a similar apples and oranges comparison to prove their hostile work environment claim. Since Title VII prohibits all racial and national origin discrimination and harassment in the workplace, it is understandable that a Title VII litigant would try to use incidents of any racial animus to support his own particular race harassment claims. After all, if an employer promotes or allows harassment against one racial group, isn't it likely that other racial groups are also experiencing harassment at this worksite?
For the time being, such reasoning won't work in the Fifth Circuit. The Hernandez case arose when two Hispanics and a Caucasian sued Yellow Transportation, claiming white employees harassed and sometimes threatened Hispanic employees and their white co-worker friends. The Plaintiffs presented specific incidences of workplace hostility towards Hispanics; however, such incidents were neither "physically threatening nor humiliating" towards Plaintiffs nor did the harassment unreasonably interfere with their work performance. Lacking evidence of sufficiently egregious harassment towards themselves or Hispanics, Plaintiffs also tried to show evidence of discrimination against African-American employees. The Fifth Circuit rejected their proffer, holding that evidence of harassment against one racial group does not necessarily reflect a hostile work environment for employees of other races, absent any evidence of a larger culture of frequent hostility in the workplace. Essentially, Yellow Transportation's possible discrimination against African-Americans did not translate to a hostile work environment for Hispanics.
The Court declined to hold that harassment towards African American employees could never support a claim of hostile work environment by Hispanic employees. Nonetheless, Yellow Transportation offers some guidance for harassment litigants – harassment is not an apples = oranges concept.
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