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10-1368 Yancick v. Hanna Steel Corp.

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 3, 2011//

10-1368 Yancick v. Hanna Steel Corp.

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 3, 2011//

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Employment
Hostile work environment

Where a co-worker treated everyone badly, regardless of race, summary judgment was properly granted to the employer on an employee’s hostile work environment claim.

“Unlike in Smith, the evidence in this case shows that Johnson was an equal opportunity bully. Holman v. Indiana, 211 F.3d 399, 403 (7th Cir. 2000) (section 1981 does not cover the ‘equal opportunity’ harasser). As noted, Johnson made some remarks with racial undertones, but he did not hurl racially charged epithets at his co-workers. He had a hostile attitude and was at times aggressive, but other than speculation, Yancick cannot connect Johnson’s behavior with racial animus. There is evidence that Johnson may have been friendly with the only other African-American employee at Hanna Steel; however, they only interacted briefly during shift changes. Jamil, on the other hand, attested that outside of work, Johnson showed hostility toward other African-Americans. He testified that this was ‘consistent with my observations of Brad Johnson’s attitude he sometimes displayed toward coworkers at Hanna Steel; he was just an aggressive guy who tried to act tough at times with everyone, white, black, or whatever color.’ Johnson only worked with white and Hispanic co-workers, so his hostility toward them cannot be viewed as singling out a group based on race. Cf. Smith, 189 F.3d at 533 (‘One method of demonstrating that harassment is based on sex is to provide evidence of discrepancies in how the alleged harasser treats members of each sex in a mixed-sex workplace.’).”

Affirmed.

10-1368 Yancick v. Hanna Steel Corp.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, McDade, J., Tinder, J.

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