Employment – discrimination — failure to hire

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7^th Circuit

Civil

Employment – discrimination — failure to hire

In a failure to hire claim, the district court erroneously did not consider evidence of a hostile work environment.

“By giving such substantial weight to the Jackson hire, the district court apparently forgot that while she was employed at Navistar, she was subject to a severely hostile environment at the Plant, which was primarily directed at her race. In fact, Jackson’s story of waiting two years, despite being more qualified than white applicants that were hired instead of her, as well as the racial hostility she was subjected to when she was finally hired, bolster Whitfield’s direct dis-crimination evidence. It is a rather persuasive piece of circumstantial evidence, which the district court erroneously relied upon to negate discrimination rather than to support it. Moreover, this singular instance of Navistar hiring a black electrician, does not entitle Navistar to immunity from sub-sequent discrimination allegations. Cf. Carson v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 82 F.3d 157, 158–59 (7th Cir. 1996). Instead, the court should have recognized that even though a member of the same protected class was hired, that fact does not magically negate the inference created by the evidence of Jack-son’s hiring and employment at the Plant, the evidence of intense racial hostility at the Plant or the cover page on Whitfield’s personnel file identifying him as black. We find that these clear errors led the district court to improperly distort Whitfield’s mosaic of circumstantial evidence.”

Affirmed in part, and Reversed in part.

13-1876 Whitfield v. International Truck & Engine Corp.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Young, J., Cudahy, J.