Harper's-11th Circuit Court of Appeals; The Term "Boy" Is Not Racist

11th Circuit Judge William H. Pryor Jr: Abovethelaw.com

(Story reported by Ken Silverstein for Harper's Magazine)

From Stephen Bright, in the Fulton County Daily Report:

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ third ruling that a white supervisor calling black men “boy”—as in “Boy, you better get going” and “Hey, boy”—is not evidence of racial animus was issued last week by Judges Edward E. Carnes and William H. Pryor Jr. in an unsigned, unpublished opinion. Carnes and Pryor are white men and alumni of the Alabama attorney general’s office.

The third judge on the panel, a visiting senior district judge from Ohio appointed by President Ronald Reagan, dissented. He would have upheld a jury verdict finding that Tyson Foods discriminated against a black man, John Hithon, in not promoting him to position as a shift manager at Tyson’s chicken processing plant in Gadsden, Ala., and awarding damages of more than $1 million to Hithon.

 (Click here to read the full story on the Harper's Magazine website)