MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2023) US oil giant ExxonMobil has been sued in the United States for failing to take measures against racial discrimination after a company employee found a hangman's noose at his worksite, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said.
"Exxon Mobil Corporation, doing business as ExxonMobil Chemical Corporation, violated Federal law when it failed to take effective measures to prevent the display of hangman's nooses at its Baton Rouge complex, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed on March 2, 2023," the EEOC said in a statement Thursday.
According to the agency, a Black employee at an ExxonMobil plant found a hangman's noose at his workplace in January 2020. At the time the employee reported the noose, ExxonMobil was aware that several other nooses had been discovered at the Baton Rouge complex, Louisiana, the statement read.
ExxonMobil has investigated some but not all of the previous incidents and has not taken action reasonably calculated to stop the harassment, according to the statement. The hanging noose is "a symbol of violence associated with the lynching of African Americans," the commission noted, adding that such symbols are essentially menacing and "significantly alter the workplace environment for Black Americans."
A similar case occurred in 2020, when the US Department of Justice began investigating an incident involving a Black National Association for Stock car Auto Racing driver, Bubba Wallace, who discovered a hanging noose in his garage.