Newsletter

September 2014

Woman fired from black educators association because she was ‘not really black enough’

Ben Velderman

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia – A biracial woman has won her case against her former
employer – the Black Educators Association – after human rights officials deemed
she had been bullied by co-workers for being “not really black enough” to do her
job.

Rachel Brothers was hired by the Black Educators Association in 2006 and almost
immediately came under fire from subordinate Catherine Collier who, according to
the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, made it clear she
thought Brothers was too young and too light-skinned
to represent the race-based organization to the community, The Chronicle Herald
reports.

Other employees joined in on the bullying, with one telling Brothers she should
“go work for whitey,” MailOnline.com reports.

But Collier was the instigator of much of the abuse directed at Brothers. It’s
worth noting Collier had interviewed for the job that ended up going to
Brothers.

Donald Murray, chairman of the Board of Inquiry at the Nova Scotia Human Rights
Commission, determined that staff members who didn’t join in Collier’s bullying
made excuses for the behavior or simply shrugged it off.

Leaders of the Black Educators Association fired Brothers less than a year on
the job for financial irregularities; the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission
found no evidence of any wrongdoing on Brothers’ part and concluded she had been
let go because of her too-light skin color, MailOnline.com reports.

“It is clear to me that Ms. Brothers was undermined in part because she was
younger than, and not as black as, Ms. Collier thought Ms. Brothers should be,”
Murray wrote in his decision.

He added, “In Ms. Collier’s eyes, Ms. Brothers was not really black enough.”

From The Chronicle Herald:

Murray said the evidence led him to conclude that in 2006, the Black Educators
Association “accepted colorist thinking.” He defined that as someone who
believes the closer a person’s skin tone comes to pure white, the better the
chances of getting jobs, accommodations and other opportunities available to
“actual ‘white’ people.”

Colorists also think the more visibly black, East Indian, American Indian or
Asian a person is, “the greater the potential there will be for discriminatory
distinctions to be made based on ‘color,’” Murray wrote.

Murray also faulted Black Educators Association’s former leader Jacqueline
Smith-Herriott for being aware of the “colorist and ageist comments being made”
against Brothers but failing to take corrective action.

Murray’s commission awarded Brothers nearly $11,000 in damages for injury to her
“dignity and self-worth.”

MailOnline.com reports that “the Black Educators Association was founded in 1969
to help Africa Nova Scotian communities.”

EAGnews.org, August 12, 2014.