People Get Offended By The "N" Word Conveniently

Ms. Brandi Johnson, was awarded $280,000, because she was the victim of a racial slur incident that occurred while she was working at STRIVE, a nonprofit organization.  Rob Carmona, the founder and an African American male, went on a four minute rant degrading and repeatedly calling Ms. Johnson the "N word". She said she was embarrassed and felt disrespected and shouldn’t have to put up with these conditions in a workplace.

She gathered information and acquired a lawyer and took Mr. Carmona to court saying that he should have to pay for his wrong doings. Though, I feel that this situation was wrong, I believe that she was more embarrassed by being inadequate rather than being offended by the "N word". Because, if you listen to the recordings that can be heard on CBSNews.com website, you will hear that Mr. Carmona disrespects Ms. Johnson from the beginning even before using the "N word" and not once does she ask him not to call her that word.

In my opinion this was all a ploy to get more money for herself for her own personal gain. This was planned and probably not the first time that he has spoken to her in this manner. This didn’t look like the first confrontation because of the fact that she took precautions by recording their conversation. The case focuses on the "N word" when I feel that it shouldn’t have.

In 2008, an African American employee of ArcelorMittal was awarded 25 million dollars for his racial harassment and uncomfortable working conditions in New York. My thoughts were that she researched similar cases and thought that she would receive the same or around the same dollar figure for her case. New York's judicial system sees this as a serious issue and wants to make examples for the public but with that, they are giving victims large amounts of money from cases with little to no change from 2008 until now. 

Although, Mr. Carmona is an African American the jury didn’t not let him pass even with his poor excuse for reasoning. According to CBSNews, Mr. Carmona disputed his case with the arguments "In his testimony, Carmona defended his use of the word, saying he used it with Johnson to convey that she was "too emotional, wrapped up in her, at least the negative aspects of human nature." This didn’t move the jury in his favor at all, jurors coming to the conclusion that the word is offensive no matter what your race or background maybe.

With that I feel to each its own, it was created as a derogatory term but now is used in so many ways that you can’t list them all. $280,000 for a word is drastic money to be losing over choice words. The freedom of speech amendment should be thrown out if everything someone said that offended someone else was punished that severely.

I believe they were trying to make an example out of Mr. Carmona, because of his strong position in the community. Ms. Brandi Johnson just used this as her free ticket to free money and I feel that that’s exactly what the government gave her free money. 

The word is used on a regular basis in some communities and used in so many different ways, I believe every person is in entitled to their opinions and feelings. Ms. Johnson may have felt strongly about the situation to feel that this was necessary but the court system used this case as an example to the country while not really resolving the real issue and giving Brandi Johnson a free payday. The dollar amount awarded to Ms.Johnson was outrageous, although their should be action towards this behavior $280,000 is not a fair price to pay in my mind.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57601041/use-of-n-word-among-blacks-on-trial-in-n.y-case/