tape and Thomas’ words seemed to have been heavily edited. #Suddenly, Sharpton’s demand for an apology flew by the wayside. “If he said it,” Sharpton argues, “I would have called for him to be fired just like Imus.”
Yet Sharpton says he believes the media’s negative portrayals of black women force them to prove they deserve respect. “Black women have been miscast as sexual and promiscuous and they have to go to work and live down the videos and stereotypes. Women’s rights are a component of civil rights, and we have to do more,” says the father of two daughters.
For the women courageous enough to speak out, they understand that their fight will be a lonely one. “When you take a bold step like that, you have to assume that it is your personal step,” says Roberts. “It’s not wise to think that others will step with you. When I filed my lawsuit, one of the company’s attorneys warned me that it would be a long and lonely battle. She said I would be old and gray, wouldn’t have any friends, and she would still be #litigating the case-and Texaco would still prosper.”
She was wrong: In November 1996, the infamous Texaco “black jelly bean tapes” surfaced and company executives were caught on audio tape planning and plotting to destroy documents that were demanded by the court and by Roberts’ attorney. On the tapes, black employees were referred to as “black jelly beans” and called the N-word. The tapes, however, did not surface until two years after Roberts began her suit.
“As a black woman, I had been victimized by discrimination. Every job I went to my race and gender were an issue. I had the education and the experience, but time after time a white man or woman always got the #promotion,” Roberts explains. “My breaking point and decision to file the lawsuit came because I got tired of Texaco bringing in white boys that I had to train and they would end up with the promotion. It just got to be too much. Winning the case was a huge victory, but I was quick to say the money and the tapes didn’t start the suit. The suit was about racism, sexism, and disparity.”
The tapes led to the largest settlement in a racial discrimination case. Texaco agreed to pay out more than $176 million to Roberts and other black employees.
Roberts, who detailed her experience in her memoir, Texaco: A True Story of Race and Corporate America, and is now president of her own management consulting firm, says she cheered when Browne Sanders was awarded $11.6 million in her sexual harassment case against the Knicks, which was later #reduced by $100,000.
During the trial, Browne Sanders said Thomas sexually #harassed her immediately after he became the president for the organization in 2003. She ignored his advances and he became hostile. According to the 18-page lawsuit filed by Browne Sanders, she was repeatedly called a “bitch” and a “ho” by Thomas. In one interaction,