Nigger: The Strange Career Of A Troublesome Word (21 page)

49.
My main guide on this matter is Dressler, supra, note
44
.

50.
See generally Daniel Givelber, “The Right to Minimum Social Decency and the Limits of Evenhandedness: Intentional
Infliction of Emotional Distress by Outrageous Conduct,” Columbia Law Review
82
(
1982
):
42
.

51.
See
Wilkinson v. Downton
,
2
Q.B.D.
57
(
1897
). According to William Prosser,
Wilkinson
was “the leading case which first broke through the shackles of the older law”
(Prosser on Torts
[1971], 60
).

52.
Bielitski v. Obadick
,
61
Dom.L.Rep.
494
(
1921
). See also Prosser,
Prosser on Torts
,
61
.

53.
Wilson v. Wilkins
,
181
Ark.
137
(
1930
). See also
Ruiz v. Bertolotti
,
236
N.Y.S.
2
d
854
(
1962
).

54.
Moore v. Savage
,
359
S.W.
2
d
95
;
362
S.W.
2
d
298
.

55.
355
F.Supp.
206
(S.D. Fla.
1973
).

56.
768
So.
2
d
1198
(
2000
).

57.
355
F.Supp. at
208
.

58.
Ibid.

59.
Ibid.

60.
768
So.
2
d at
1199
.

61.
Ibid. at
1201
.

62.
Restatement (Second) of Torts, Section
46
(American Law Institute
1964
).

63.
Calvert Magruder, “Mental and Emotional Disturbance in the Law of Torts,”
Harvard Law Review
49 (
1936
):
1023
,
1035
.

64.
355
F. Supp.
206
at
211
.

65.
Ibid.

66.
Bradshaw v. Swagerty
563
P.
2
d
513
(
1977
).

67.
Irving v.J. L. Marsh
,
360
N.E.
2
d
983
(
1977
).

68.
Dawson v. Zayre Department Stores
,
499
A.
2
d
648
,
649
(
1985
).

69.
Jones v. City of Boston
,
738
F.Supp
604
(
1990
). See also
Caldor v. Bowden
,
625
A.
2
d
959
(
1993
).

70.
Lay v. Roux Labs.
,
379
So.
2
d
451
(
1980
).

71.
Paige v. Youngstown Bd. of Educ
,
1994
Ohio App LEXIS
5942
(
1994
).

72.
See
Parker v. DPCE
,
1992
U.S. Dist. LEXIS
16921
.

73.
My rendition of the facts in this case is based on the court of appeals’ decision in
Brown v. East Mississippi Elec. Power Ass'n
,
989
F.
2
d
858
(
5
th Cir.
1993
), and the unpublished opinion of the trial court.
It is also based upon the parties’ briefs, which Alison Steiner, counsel for the plaintiff, was kind enough to send me.

74.
989
F.
2
d at
861
.

75.
Ibid.

76.
Ibid. at
862
.

77.
Ibid.

78.
Ibid. at
861
.

79.
Spriggs v. Diamond Auto Glass Co.
,
242
F.
3
d
179
(
4
th Cir.
2001
).

80.
Ibid. at
182
.

81.
See
Harris v.Forklift Sys., Inc.
,
510
U.S.
17
(
1993
).

82.
Ibid. at
21
.

83.
Ibid.

84.
242 F.
3
d at
185
(quoting
Rodgers v. Western-Southern Life Ins. Co.
,
12
F.
3
d
668
,
675
[
7
th Cir.
1993]
).

85.
Ibid.

86.
Bolden v. PRC, Inc.
,
43
F.
3
d
545
(
10
th Cir.
1994
).

87.
Ibid. at
551
.

88.
Ibid.

89.
Ibid.

90.
See Eric Schnapper, “Some of Them Still Don't Get It: Hostile Work Environment Litigation in the Lower Courts,”
University of Chicago Legal Forum 1999,
277
.
Some students of the hostile-workplace case law assert that courts tend to be more solicitous toward plaintiffs making racial-discrimination claims than toward those making gender-discrimination claims. See, e.g., Robert J. Gregory, “You Can Call Me a ‘Bitch’—Just Don't Use the ‘N-Word,’
”DePaul Law Review
46
(
1977
):
741
.

91.
116
F.
3
d at
631
.

92.
Jackson v. Quanex Corp.
,
191
F.
3
d
647
(
6
th Cir.
1999
).

93.
Ibid. According to another version of the facts, the supervisor stated that the sludge was “ass deep to a tall nigger” (191 F.
3
d at
652
).

94.
Ibid. at
659
.

95.
Ibid. at
662
.

96.
Cf. Steven Hetcher, “Creating Safe Social Norms In A Dangerous World,”
Southern California Law Review
73
(
1999
):
1
.

97.
United States v. Magleby
241
F.
3
d
1306
,
1318
(
10
th Cir.
2001
).

98.
United States v. Tocco
,
200
F.
3
d
401
,
420
(
6
th Cir.
2000
).

99.
Ibid.

100.
Robinson v. Runyon
,
149
F.
3
d
507
(
6
th Cir.
1998
). See also
Heno v. Sprint/United Management Co.
,
208
F.
3
d
847
(
10
th Cir.
2000
).

101.
Brown v. City of Hialeah
,
30
F.
3
d
1433
,
1434
(
11
th Cir.
1994
).

102.
Ibid. at
1436
.

103.
See, e.g., Alan M. Dershowitz,
Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case
(1997); Vincent Bugliosi,
Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder
(
1996
); Jeffrey Toobin,
Run of His Life:“The People v. O.J. Simpson”
(
1996
).

104.
1995
WL
15923
at
21
–
24
(California Superior Court transcript, January
13
,
1995
).

105.
Ibid. at
25
.

106.
Ross v. Douglas County, Neb
,
234
F.
3
d
391
(
8
th Cir.
2000
).

107.
Preston v. Preston
,
627
N.Y.S.
2
d
518
(
1995
).

108.
Lee v. the Superior Court of Ventura County
,
11
Cal. Rptr.
2
d
763
(Cal. Ct. App.
1992
). Actually, Lee petitioned to change his name to “Misteri Nigger” but stated that he intended for the
i
at the end of the first name to be silent (ibid.).

109.
Ibid. at
764
.

110.
Ibid.

1.
Leon F. Litwack,
Been in the Storm So Long
(1979),
5
9
.

2.
See Charles Miller, “Constitutional Law and the Rhetoric of Race,” in Paul Finkelman, ed.,
African Americans and the Law
(
1992
),
416
; Mencken, American Language,
379
; Irving Lewis Allen, “Sly Slurs: Mispronunciation and Decapitalization of Group Names,”
Names
36
(
1988
):
217
.

3.
See Aljean Harmetz,
On the Road to Tara
(1996),
144
; Leonard J. Leff,
“Gone With the Wind
and Hollywood's Racial Politics,”
Atlantic Monthly
, December
1995
.

4.
Hugh Rawson,
Wicked Words
(
1989
),
270
.

5.
At the same time, Secretary Udall changed all “Jap” references to “Japanese.” See Mark Monmonier,
Drawing the Line: Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy
(
1995
),
52
. See also Lois Thomas, “What's in a Name,”
In These Times
, October
20
,
1997
; Richard Willing, “Cripple Creek, Squaw Tits, and Other Mapmaking No-Nos,”
Washington Magazine
, June
1996
.

6.
See
Hamilton v. Alabama
,
376
U.S.
650
(
1964
). See also Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Alabama, No-
793
(filed January
29
,
1964
).

7.
William Bradford Huie,
Three Lives for Mississippi
(
1965
),
35
.

8.
See Robert McFadden et al.,
Outrage: The Story Behind the Tawana Brawley Hoax
(1990); Grand Jury of the Supreme Court, State of New York, County of Dutchess, Report of the Grand Jury and Related Documents Concerning the Tawana Brawley Investigation (
1988
).

9.
See Kathryn K. Russell,
The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment, and Other Microaggressions
(1998),
15
7
; James Merolla, “Newport Woman Reports Getting More Racist Messages: Tisha Anderson Says She Is Afraid to Leave Her Apartment after Receiving Telephone Threats and a Note,”
Providence Journal-Bulletin
, November
16
,
1995
; “Anonymous Donor Offers Reward in Racist Threat; Police Report No New Leads on Slurs Scrawled on Walls and Steps of the Newport Green Apartment Complex,”
Providence Journal-Bulletin
, November
14
,
1995
. For a glimpse of the wasted effort, damaging confusion, and hurtful recrimination generated by this episode, see Celeste Katz, “Newport NAACP Branch Meets over Racist Attacks; They Question the Newport Police's Efforts and Demand Further Action in the Case of
Tisha Anderson,”
Providence Journal-Bulletin
, November
18
,
1995
. For a murky case that seems to have involved another racial hoax in Providence, see Marion Davis, “Charges against Clemente Dismissed; Garrick Clemente Was Accused of Hiring Someone to Paint a Racial Slur on His Front Door,”
Providence Journal-Bulletin
, August
5
,
1996
.