Two black women hit Fox News with lawsuit claiming ‘top-down racial harassment’

Two black women filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Fox News for racial discrimination they experienced while working at the news network, the New York Times reports.

Tichaona Brown and Tabrese Wright, who managed and coordinated the payroll department, accused Fox's former comptroller, Judith Slater, of "top-down racial harassment." Brown and Wright allege in their case that Slater made comments calling black men "women beaters" and about black people wanting to cause physical harm to white people.

The women filed the suit in State Supreme Court in the Bronx. Their lawyers, Douglas H. Wigdor and Jeanne Christensen, said, "We are confident that the good men and women of the Bronx will hold Fox accountable for what we believe to be its abhorrent racist conduct, reminiscent of the Jim Crow era."

In a statement to Mediaite, Fox News said, "We take any complaint of this nature very seriously and took the appropriate action in investigating and firing Ms. Slater within two weeks of this being brought to our attention. There is no place for abhorrent behavior like this at Fox News." Slater was fired on Feb. 28.

A Fox news spokesperson issued the following statement to Raw Story:

We take complaints of this nature very seriously and took prompt and effective remedial action before Ms. Brown and Ms. Wright sued in court and even before Ms. Wright complained through her lawyer. There is no place for inappropriate verbal remarks like this at Fox News. We are disappointed that this needless litigation has been filed.

The lawsuit was filed the same day host Bill O'Reilly made a racist and sexist comment about California Rep. Maxine Waters' hair, calling it her “James Brown wig.”

This not the first time Fox News has faced a discrimination lawsuit in the last year. The network's former CEO Roger Ailes was ousted in July, 2016 over a sexual harassment lawsuit. O'Reilly was accused of similar harassment.

Note: This article was updated with additional comment from Fox News.