CNN producer files a $50 million lawsuit against Time Warner for racial discrimination
By Victor Ochieng
There is a battle going on at CNN, pitting the company’s top leadership against Dewayne Walker, one of the company’s African-American employees.
That battle is now going to court. Walker has filed a law-suit against Time Warner Inc., Turner Services Inc., CNN, and Turner Broadcasting System. The $50 million lawsuit is occasioned by what Walker terms racial discrimination against him. He claims that the company punished him after he filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC].
According to court papers filed by Walker, he says his 13 years of service to CNN haven’t seen him earn any promotion, claiming that this is due to the fact that he’s Black.
During his tenure, he says he’s faced serious racial discrimination and has been subjected to racial statements, such as “It’s hard to manage Black people” and “Who would be worth more: Black slaves from the past, or new slaves.”
Walker says promotion to a higher position has evaded him over nine times in favor of white employees, whose qualifications he says are inferior to his.
Walker is currently serving CNN as its manager for Creative Marketing and Public Relations in Atlanta City. In his current role, he says he’s doing way more than is defined in his job description and more than his white counterparts serving in similar positionS.
It’s admissible that Walker has done a lot and has been recognized for his role. He earned himself the Peabody award and Emmy among several others for his marketing and promotion works.
Walker’s claims don’t just end with his personal experience, he also says the company systematically discriminates against African-Americans, which is why they never reach the executive levels in the company.
He asserts that the company doesn’t create room for open competition whenever there is a new opening for higher positions.
“Turner such as CNN has created an employment schematic that requires African-Americans to generally labor three times as long as Caucasians to receive any type of promotion, and even when a promotion is obtained, African-Americans are denied by the proverbial glass ceiling, almost always failing to reach the highest levels of Turner’s Net-works,” reads the lawsuit.
(Cont’d from FP)
The suit goes further to say that “In the 46 year history of Turner Networks, no African-American has ever been promoted or selected to be President of Turning Broadcasting Inc., or oversee any of Turner’s Net-works.”
Walker has claimed in his lawsuit that his filing with the EEOC wasn’t acted upon by the commission.
He filed a lawsuit on Dec. 22, 2015, where he’s asking for $50 million in damages for what CNN and Turner have put him through.
