A Lesbian, formerly employed by Apple Computer as a human resources compensation consultant, has slapped one of the nation’s largest computer manufacturers with a discrimination lawsuit.
This lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, may be one of the largest discrimination lawsuits filed against Apple Computer by a Lesbian.
The amended complaint, filed on May 16, 2005, alleges that Shaune Patterson was suspended for one month and then subsequently wrongfully terminated from her position, after she complained that her white counterparts, who were junior to her, were making higher salaries than she was. Patterson alleges that the suspension came one day after she complained of racial discrimination.
Patterson, who has an MBA from the University of Texas, amended her complaint to include claims of sexual orientation and genetic characteristic discrimination. Prior to her one-month suspension, Patterson alleges that one of Apple’s managers wrote a memo describing her as a “rather obese-sized black lesbian.” According to Patterson’s attorney, Waukeen McCoy, “Apple discounted my client’s achievements, choosing to base the decision to discipline not on her performance, but rather on her size, race, and sexual orientation.” McCoy was the lead plaintiffs’ attorney in one of the largest U.S. History racial discrimination suit, Carroll v. Interstate Brands Corporation, which rendered a verdict for $133 million in August of 2000.
Source: PRNewswire.
I love how people make it out to be that Apple did this. It was most likely her superior that did this, not the whole company. I’m sure that the person who wrote that letter with those remarks is going to be terminated and she will be asked to come back, that is if she wants to come back.
And anyways, if someone brings alligations against someone else in a company, don’t both get suspended until it can be sorted out. You know, so they are not causing tension at the work place. All we know is she has been suspended, then laid off, what about the other person or people involved. And how do we know it wasn’t related to her work. Intil we know everything, this is someone screaming racism. We don’t know if she got up in front of everyone and screamed out, “I’m big, I’m black, and I’m a lesbian!” Then in the memo that got sent out about the commotion, they described her as saying that she is big, black and a lesbian. She might have done that out burst because MS pulled out of the Gay rights thing.
Who knows. Until all the evidence is layed out, this is just alligations.
Could it be possible that she was hired in the first place because she was “fat, black and Lesbian?”
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Here’s some advice for Patterson: Go straight and lose some weight.
Oh yeah, BTW, apply for a job at Microsoft. You’ll fit right in there.
it all depends on how the manager was using that description. We will probably never know how much of a factor her physical appearance was in her being fired, but the manager should really have known better than to be so careless in a corporate email. he should be fired just for being careless and stupid. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that this woman should win this lawsuit. It just goes to show that it doesn’t hurt to be a little considerate. If he hadn’t written down those few words, this wouldn’t even be happening, and as a manager, he should know how things like that can be used against him.
and also, since when has physical appearance not played a role in a person’s success? A lot of times, first impressions play a large role in our views/attitudes towards a person. We all do it, we all draw conclusions based on appearance. For example, one study shows that taller men on average make more money that shorter men. The reason being that a person’s height plays a factor in how succesful he is. Not that stereotyping is right, but it shouldn’t surprise us, and filing lawsuits and creating discrimination laws isn’t the solution.
I’d hate to hear that this is a common thing, I respect Apple greatly for their focus on diversity. This does not reflect that message. I happen to be a lesbian and my dream job is to work at my local Apple Store, I would hope my exceptional job performance would determine what I am payed and that pay wouldn’t be detrimented simply because of my sexual preference. I hope this either turns out to be fake, or Apple gets what they disserve for it if it’s true.
you know, i can understand the need to defend apple against all the fud and general misunderstanding that populates the net and traditional publications, but the negative knee jerk reactive comments take it to a new low.
i would bet that the vast majority of the negative comments on this board where posted by white hetrosexual males that are in some way threatened by a black lesbian.
these comments alone demonstrate that racial and sexual discrimination are alive and well in this county. discrimination only serves one purpose: it gives small dicked pimply white boys an impotent illusion of superiority in an ever increasing world where they are being pushed futher out of the majority.
on a more rational note, the merrits of this case will be determined in the courts. if they’re found to be baseless then apple can sue for it’s court costs. if they’re found to have merit then apple will have to pay and the manager(s) should be fired. this will probably never make it to court, they’ll be some kind of settlement as well as some kind of mandatory diveristy training.
are you guys for real?
Not only are some of these comments ignorant in the most offensive way, they really expose to the world the juvenileness of Macatistas.
Shape up, this is a very public forum and your comments make all Mac advocates look really bad.
I mean ” Go straight loose some weight.; “Advice for Patterson: less doughnuts and more “hot dogs.”” what the F is that.
Why don’t you “just go windows and never look back” jerks.
Who the hell needs people like you and Rush Limblah representing mac users.
And the the same A..H…s wine about being attacked constantly by ignorant Windows users.
how is this different.
Again just because Apple makes amazing products does not mean that they have some bad eggs working for them.
It would be amazing if Apple where the best employer with the best environmental record and the best community practises, but the reality couldn’t be further from this ideal as we have been witnessing recently. (lawsuits against bloggers? hello?
recycling policies? what?
Making their resellers life difficult? how does that help?).
For Apple to be at it’s best we need to be really sharp about it’s business practises and really check the company on any of it’s policies implied or real.
If you trully love Apple then you would take accusations like this seriously and demand explanation from the company.
Not attack the victim.
We are not Taliban.
doods.
not cool.
not cool.
PS, I am neither ah woman nor a minority so keep your trap shut with the disparaging comments.
“My guess is the white counterparts work harder, don’t run around worrying about their whiteness as part of their daily routine, let alone thier sexual orientation.”
With people like you around, who assume the white people work harder, why should the white people worry? I guarantee they think about their coworker’s blackness, lesbian-ness, and obesity all the time.
It’s the privilege of the majority that you don’t have to worry about being the only _whatever_ in the office, that you will be judged on your merits, and you will be given the assumption of innocence by morons like you in any situation.
With every passing day it becomes more clear that the MDN readership is mostly straight, white, ignorant, male teenagers. At least I hope they’re teenagers–that leaves some possibility that they might learn something as they get older and realize they don’t know shit about anything.
Seems pretty obvious to me, but apparently not to many other MDN readers, that We Weren’t There, and consequently we don’t have anywhere near enough information here at our computers to make a sensible judgment about whether this was a lazy employee who got fired for being a pain in the ass and then cooked up a scheme to get wreak financial revenge, or a woman who had a Very Bad Boss who fired her because he was encumbered by severely neanderthal prejudices, or even a case of corporate policy that discouraged minorities from receiving equal opportunities and equitable pay.
However, I would tend to discount the latter possibility (which has to be the basis of this lawsuit for it to be worth anything), simply because the Apple campus is rampant with societal fringe of every shape, size, and color, including bearded men in panty hose and high heels, extremely obese managers, physically challenged programmers, Little People, right-wing Libertarian wackos, schizoid vegan CEOs, and even acknowledged Salesmen.
But since nobody here has any idea what went on in this case, why not just let the lawyers, the judge, and the jury, do their job? Maybe the result will be interesting. But probably not.
Hh my god whoever “Thelonius Mac” is; he better change his pseudonim now, because “Thelonius Monk” is about to come and kick his ass.
Reading some of these posts all I keep thinking about is TALIBAN.
Most of the posts sound like the same facist chauvisnistic drivel that the taliban used to spew about women, other religions, and different people.
Taliban: “you got raped, but you are a woman therefore it’s your fault because you tempted the man by being a woman.”
Thelonious Mac (ugh I am sorry Monk) : “If you are fat and a lesbian AND black, then the only way you can get money is by extorting us upstanding, objective, heterosexual, white male business owners.
Therefore no matter what the merrits of this suit, you are the one who is to be punished.”
My god not only do I not want people like TM representing Mac users, I think he is the kind of person that makes me ashamed of both being a man and of being caucasian.
YUK… F…ing Hitler youth. get a f…ing life you looser.
Being obese, black and lesbian when fired…. isn’t that what they term a PC Trifecta?
in which case those involved need to be fired and the company needs to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Women in the workplace… sigh!…
I knew some of you were racist and blind to it. Why don’t you let the facts come out before your draw your conclusions.
1) To Seabasstin – would you please just shut your whining, liberal, politically correct pie hole? People like you(and Dak Roland) are more offensive to this world than the people that made the “disparaging” comments. You, and other spineless fish of your ilk, are what allowed this country to get to this point of “I am “special”, and if you don’t agree I will sue”. YOU disgust ME with your sanctimonious attitude. Just do us all a favor and s t f u!
2) Well, I am sure when she was hired she was probably an obese, black dyke yet that didn’t stop them from hiring her now did it?
Christ, if only she were in a wheelchair, too, this would be the jackpot!
Political Correctness has run its course. Now common sense will apply the backlash in “spades,” so to speak. This big fat black carpet muncher deserves nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Period.
Now let the bleeding heart hippie tree huggers castigate me for speaking my mind and what I believe to be the truth.
She is a woman.
She is obese.
She is of color.
She is a lesbian.
She should work in government. She has everything going for her. If she spoke French also, she could go right to the top here in Canada. 6 figure salary in no time. That MBA she has might slow her down though. She may be over qualified for government work.
Anon,
For Liberals, free speech only applies if it matches their warped world view. Anything else is “hate speech.” How convenient. No wonder they don’t occupy the White House, run Congress, run the Senate, or own the Supreme Court.
With out a doubt the most ridiculous fscking commentary from everyone i’ve ever seen…….the fact is all u COMPUTER USERS will ever do is fscking talk talk talk talk talk,….. too scared to put ur life on the line for anything real, u would never actually do anything but talk talk talk talk… .drop this subject… i hope whatever the truth is in this matter will come out and justice served……but to hear this useless commentary….. it disgusting, we’ll all be judged one day, ridiculous absolutely ridiculous,
Ps. i work for apple, i think its the best place i’ve ever had the priveledge to work, but if this is true……let justice be served………..
its pathetic that i even had to post a message on this stupid subject…..so i to am a riduculous foolll,,,,,,,, we’ll all die some day….
Mmmmm… Big Fat Black Lesbian’s.
All your comments suck, you should use Windows
If that is true, Apple should blame the wrong manager.
I don’t think that being gay is wrong when you work at Apple.
I’m gay and I still want to be pride working with a mac.
Would you want someone who made these comments deciding whether you’re hired, promoted or fired?
Re: many of these posts…
“The two most common things in the Universe are hydrogen and stupidity.”
-Harlan Ellison
’nuff said.
You hate-filled bigots should join the KKK. Then you could lynch as many black people as you want!
Make sure you get a double membership with the Christian Coalition, so you know you are doing God’s work when the people you lynch are gay.