White Workers Sue Kennesaw Over E-mail Search, Say Black Workers Weren't Subjected to Same Search

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Four Kennesaw employees said the city violated their civil rights by searching e-mail archives for racially offensive messages and disciplining them, while not doing the same to minority employees. The employees – two white police officers and two white 911 center workers – filed a federal lawsuit last week against the city, Mayor Mark Mathews, City Manager Steve Kennedy and Richard Klein, who was the human resources director. City officials declined comment Monday, saying they hadn’t been served yet.

E-mails also were part of a racial harassment lawsuit filed last March against the city by two African-American employees in the Public Works Department and a former public works employee who was a native of Korea. That lawsuit alleged racist jokes, such as a depiction of a “Ghetto Wedding,” were forwarded to numerous people through the city e-mail system. Another e-mail linked to an interactive online video game called “Border Patrol,” in which players shot at illegal aliens.

The workers also said they were subjected to racial slurs and other insults. The suit was settled in July for $1.8 million. John Dowdy, who resigned from the city council, was accused of sending e-mails with racial jokes and stereotypes to the public works director. The four white employees said the filing of that racial harassment lawsuit set off a “witch hunt” as city officials tried to prove they wouldn’t tolerate racial harassment. The city information technology director was ordered to search the e-mail archives, the suit said.

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