Imagine this. It’s your employee’s second day on the job. He climb into the cab of truck you’ve assigned him assigned to operate, and hanging from the rearview mirror is a noose.
That’s what happened to Jhalil Croley, a Black heavy-equipment operator working for Frank Road Recycling. He was understandably terrified and reported the incident. He was later fired.
The trial court looked at those facts and somehow decided, as a matter of law, that a noose in your vehicle doesn’t create a hostile work environment.
Thankfully, an Ohio appellate court had the legal sense (and humanity) to fix that mistake. It reversed summary judgment and correctly held that even a single incident of a noose directed at a Black employee can be severe enough to create a hostile work environment.
As the court powerfully wrote:
“No less than the swastika or the Klansman’s hood, the noose in this context is intended to arouse fear. The noose is a symbol of this nation’s violent legacy against African Americans and brings them the grim specter of racially motivated violence that continues today. The noose is among the most repugnant of all racist symbols, because it is itself an instrument of violence.”
Spot on!
The noose isn’t “a prank” or “an isolated incident.” It’s a weapon, one that carries the weight of generations of racial terror. And when an employer shrugs off that kind of symbol in its workplace, it’s not just failing one employee, it’s participating in perpetuating that terror.
This case is a stark reminder that employers must take these incidents seriously — immediately, thoroughly, and empathetically. It’s also a reminder that courts, thankfully, sometimes still get it right on appeal.
