‘Sand Ni—er’: Allentown Councilwoman Allegedly Tells Black City Clerk ‘F–k You’ After Years of Racist Abuse Sparks Lawsuit

A Black woman who serves as deputy city clerk for Allentown, Pennsylvania, is suing the city for permitting a racially hostile workplace environment, which she says has included racial slurs and other demeaning comments by city officials directed at her and other Black employees and citizens for years. In her complaint filed in federal court last week, Tawanna Whitehead alleges that during her 15-year tenure, she has been subjected to “myriad racially hostile incidents” that violate state and federal civil rights law. They include an incident in 2015 when “a high-ranking City official allegedly used the term ‘Sand Ni—er’ multiple times” in her presence, then repeated the racial slur again in the presence of the city council president and her current supervisor Michael Hanlon, the city clerk. She claims that at her urging, Hanlon reported the incident to the city’s human resources department, but says she was “never told of any findings or remedial actions taken.” The HR director did tell her in an interview, however, “you’re not the victim.” Much of Whitehead’s complaint centers around racist comments allegedly made by white Allentown City Council member Candida Affa, whom she calls “an unashamed bigot” whose racial animus the seven-member Council...