Former NASCAR official suing NASCAR for discrimination

It's easy to sit here and judge the situation when you haven't walked in the offended party's shoes. Most women working in a male dominated job classification have a tough roe to hoe and there are plenty of examples to document that fact. A quick Google search will confirm just how many major gender discrimination lawsuits have been processed and are in process.

Maybe the fine gentlemen on this message board are not Neanderthals but there are plenty of men in the workforce who are. They are filling executive roles as well as the roles of lower level employees. Until this lawsuit takes it's course it's all speculation.

Ms Grant's lawsuit adds the twist of race discrimination. If even one of her statements regarding that portion of her suit has merit I think it's uncalled for and disgraceful. I've believed from it's inception that NASCAR's Drive for Diversity is nothing more than window dressing so I'm already jaded by my initial opinion that it's pure BS. Reading interviews like this one don't help my attitude.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/sp.../08nascar.html

The fact that two employees have already been suspended leads one to believe that it's not all puppies and roses within the NASCAR establishment. Brian France's statements indicate, to me at least, that all he cares about is the money but that fact should be pretty clear to most NASCAR fans. NASCAR's "image" has been sullied by this lawsuit whether Ms Grant walks away with $225 mil or with empty pockets.

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Originally Posted by RaceFanStan

1. The best way to address a situation is to to follow the chain of command.
Start with the immediate supervisor & keep going to each supervisor in the chain ...
until one is found that has the management skills to address the unpleasant situation.
2. The low-level supervisors will just want things to go away & won't want to address an issue.
The low-level supervisors are only interested in getting the job done & are insensitive to employee issues.
3. See #1. (I would also support my wife or daughter & encourage them to keep going.)
4. My job would be to provide moral support & tell my wife/daughter that eventually someone will listen.
5. Making waves is something I have always done, I would encourage my wife/daughter to be very vocal.
6. My mindset is to fight injustice wherever it exists.
If my wife/daughter were being harrassed at their job I would urge them to make it known to "upper management".
I would tell my wife/daughter to not take any abuse
I might even let the offending person(s) know that they will be exposed to management.
Most bullies are cowards hiding behind a bluff, when confronted they shrink away & look for a new victim.
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Now back on topic :
I really feel that Mauricia Grant may have faced some statements that could have been taken as offensive,
of course the offending person(s) would say it was just in jest & was only said as a joke.
Too many times people are only looking for a way of cashing-in ...
especially when they are dismissed from their job & are faced with having to find another job. :s
If Mauricia Grant was truly harrassed, she should have made upper management aware of it.
The story just doesn't ring true to me & I suspect Mauricia is just looking for a big pay-off.

As stated before we live in the United States ...
a citizen is allowed to bring suit against anyone they choose ...
and every citizen is entitled to have an opinion on those suits ...
just making an allegation doesn't make it true but now NASCAR has to defend themselves. :s

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RFS, in the future, please do not misquote me. I would respectfully request you don't presume to change my text by adding bullet point numbers which I did not use, which would make it a misquote. That's not right.

As to your response: You make excellent points as to what an agrieved party should do to get some justice out of a very difficult matter. But what you need to realize is that just because someone follows the chain of command doesn't mean anything will come of it. As I have said, and as Sparky1329 confirmed, there is plenty of documented cases of social abuse in the workplace, where someone complained all the up to the CEO and was brushed aside or threatened with termination if they didn't shut up, where it took going to court to get something done about it. Without knowing all the facts, it's next to impossible to judge who is telling the truth about what went on during Grant's term of employment, and I'm not saying that did or didn't happen here. We have to wait and see what comes out in court.

If your wife/daughter continued to get harrassed despite frequent complaints to managment, then what options would you have? Obviously you would support them as you should. But where do you go after hitting one brick wall after another? The one viable course you can take after all that might be to bring them to court and settle it there. Maybe the threat of the lawsuit will make the defendent party finally look at their work environment and settle out of court and make positive changes. As history has shown, those changes only take place after such a lawsuit has been pushed through the courts.

In this case, as NASCAR has put two people named in the suit on suspension, as I, Sparky1329, and others have noticed on this thread, so assuming as you do that the case has no legs is at best pre-mature at best. If you're saying she should have made upper management aware of the issue, how do we know she didn't? We don't. Nobody here knows at all. We have to wait for the case to come to court and look at her evidence, as well as NASCAR's. It's the only way.

Having said all that, I will defer to Sparky1329's comments.

The story takes a new twist .... http://www.motorsportforum.com/forum.../icons/eek.gif

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g202/gr8link/n.jpg

from nascar.com :
August 7, 2008
The former racing official who has accused NASCAR of racial discrimination and sexual harassment
in a $225 million lawsuit
had a restraining order filed against her by a former boyfriend
and was arrested for driving under the influence .....
Mauricia Grant, who filed her suit against NASCAR in June,
also was charged with driving with a suspended license
while still employed as a technical inspector for NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series .....

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/head....ap/index.html

I'm not sure if her offenses have any relevance to her lawsuit but it sure doesn't make her look too good. "People who live in glass houses" and all that sort of stuff.

Sparky they dont,but it does lend a clue into what kind of peson she really is.Granted she could have had tough breaks in life,or this is who she really is.

That's true, John.

she has not a chance of out of court settlement and will lose in court
now she needs to shutup and go away :p

This does some damage to her personally, certainly in the eyes of a jury. But don't forget, two of the people named in her suit were suspended by NASCAR, and that does lend weight to her case, in the eyes of a jury. So as I have said, there are two sides to every story. Just have to wait and let them settle it in court, where both parties will be able to present their arguement. Grant apparently does not deny her history, but it has no direct bearing on her case against NASCAR, who as of yet has not denied Grant's claims, other than Brian France saying she never complained to her supervisors, which Grant says is untrue.

Just have to see the process through. I obviously can't speak for anyone here, but I'm not looking for any smoking gun to confirm guilt or innocence. I want to see what both Grant and NASCAR has before arriving at a personal conclusion. That's just being fair.

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Originally Posted by oldhippie

she has not a chance of out of court settlement and will lose in court
now she needs to shutup and go away :p

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Not necessarily. If she has hard copy documentation to present to the court to support her case she does not have to shut up and go away. Evidence will decide this case regardless of the mud slinging from both sides.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sparky1329

Not necessarily. If she has hard copy documentation to present to the court to support her case she does not have to shut up and go away. Evidence will decide this case regardless of the mud slinging from both sides.

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Damn skippy, and very well put.