'Lesbian' Card, Racial Slurs Allegedly Used to Demean NASCAR Worker

Mauricia Grant was ready and willing to work her way to the top of the male-driven world of NASCAR, but now she says she was subjected to harassment and fired unjustly.

Grant, who is black, says that she was subjected to racial comments and threatening innuendo, sexually harassed, and accused of being a lesbian.

Among other comments, Grant claims, she was subjected to the term "Nappy Headed Mo [homosexual]," evidently a reference to the offhanded slur that got radio personality Don Imus fired from CBS radio when Imus and his producer made on-air comments about the players on the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Eight days after his on-air remarks, Imus was terminated from CBS.

Grant would like to see a measure of justice for herself, and has brought suit against NASCAR to the tune of $225 million for discrimination--both racial and sexual--as well as sexual harassment and being wrongfully fired.

Grant was let go in October of 2007.

Said Grant of her NASCAR job, "I loved it," reported the Associated Press in a June 11 story.

Added Grant, "It was a great, exciting, adrenaline-filled job where I worked with fast cars and the best drivers in the world."

As much as Grant loved the work itself, however, she said that her co-workers made her job difficult, and that it was part and parcel of the culture; Grant asserted that "there was an ongoing daily pattern. It was the nature of the people I worked with, the people who ran it-it trickled down from the top."

Said Grant, "It's just the way things are in the garage."

Grant, who was employed as a technical inspector of racing cars from January of 2005 until her firing, said in her suit that not only was she referred to by colleagues as a "Nappy Headed Mo," but also as "Queen Sheba."

Moreover, Grant's suit claims, her performance was denigrated as being carried out on "colored people time."

Grant's suit also said one official, who was not identified in the AP story, made intimidating comments about the Ku Klux Klan, a notoriously violent and racist organization with vigilante roots.

Grant also claimed that colleagues exposed themselves inappropriately to her, told dirty jokes in her presence, and made sexual overtures that Grant repelled.

Her refusal to go on dates with co-workers led to male colleagues saying that she was a lesbian.

Grant kept a journal of incidents of harassment throughout her employment with NASCAR; her suit says that she made many complaints about inappropriate treatment on the job, but that her supervisor, Joe Balash, NASCAR's Nationwide Series Director, told her, "You just have to dal with it" because her co-workers were "former military guys."

Grant claimed that Balash himself spoke demeaningly to her, saying on one occasion, "Does your workout include an urban obstacle course with a flat-screen TV on your back?"

The suit listed other incidents, ranging from allegedly being asked to duck down while riding in the same car with NASCAR officials who said they didn't want race fans to see them driving with a black woman, to being required to work out in the sun more frequently than others because, she was told, her dark complexion would protect her from sunburn.

The AP article quoted NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey Poston as saying, "As an equal opportunity employer, NASCAR is fully committed to the spirit and letter of affirmative action law."

According to the AP story, Poston asserted that NASCAR has a zero-tolerance policy in place regarding harassment.