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Editor’s Note: This article contains descriptions of racism and a photo of a bow. For more information, see our editorial standards.
Dive brief:
- Black workers found a human-shaped cardboard figure hanging from a noose with the words “my motivation to work” scrawled on it when they reported to a job site last week in Cleveland, according to police and media reports.
- Employees of Cleveland-based O’s Versatility Construction notified police of the possible hate crime on Oct. 24, when they found the item on the 11th floor of 776 Euclid Ave, where they were painting. according to a police report obtained by Construction Dive.
- Employees told police that there has been ongoing harassment in the workplace, with white workers referring to black workers with racial slurs. When the black employees packed up and said they would not return to the site after finding the screen, a white worker yelled, “The n—— go,” according to tthe police report.
Diving knowledge:
Mentor, Ohio-based Cleveland Construction is managing the site. In a statement shared with Construction Dive, the company said the display was created by an employee of a subcontractor, who was later removed from the job site.
Mitch DaDantethe company’s equal employment officer, said the company concluded the act was not racially motivated.
Black workers walked off the job after discovering this display.
“We understand that actions that could be perceived as discriminatory or harassing remain unacceptable, regardless of intent,” DaDante wrote in an email to Construction Dive. “Therefore, although based on our initial investigation, it does not appear that the alleged incident was motivated by any racial animosity, we nevertheless requested that the individual involved not return to our project site.”
The Cleveland police report classified the episode as ethnic intimidation and aggravated menacing, which applies to cases where an individual leads someone to believe that the offender will do so. cause them serious physical harm.
DaDante declined to address additional questions about how Cleveland Construction concluded that the ribbon display, figurine and written message were not racially motivated.
“A symbol of violence”
Ties appear in construction sites have gained widespread attention since the killing of George Floyd in 2020. They occur frequently enough that Equal Employment Opportunities Commission has a category of data to track it.
In 2021, workers found as many as eight ties at an Amazon workplace in Connecticut, prompting a lawsuit against the e-commerce giant and its contractors who argue the companies promoted a work environment hostile to black and brown workers by not doing enough. to avoid the appearance of loops.
That demandfiled in federal court in Connecticut, argues that “The hangman’s noose is widely known to be a symbol of violence and hatred directed at black and brown men. Because the noose has historically been used as a tool to kill men of color, is now used to communicate an intimidating threat of violence.”
Kenneth Krayeske, civil rights attorney for BBB attorneys in New Haven, Conn., who would not comment directly on the Cleveland workplace display, said the nooses are symbols of hate widely equated with illegal lynchings of African-Americans before and after the war civil
“A bow means you’re going to die,” Krayeske said. “It’s a strange fruit. We have a long and horrible history of lynching in America.”
