For 15 years, Jerry Davis supported Fox Sports as its Director of the music department. During that time, a higher position – Vice President of Music – was open four times. All four times, Davis was passed over for another candidate, despite being in a role that one would assume is being groomed for the VP spot.
Davis filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), alleging that his being overlooked for the promotion was because of the color of his skin. He claimed that Fox Sports was illegally discriminating against him based on his race.
He’s now had enough. Davis filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against Fox Sports just last week.
In his lawsuit, Davis asserts that there is a glass ceiling on promotion potential for black employees at the network. They are never allowed to climb the ladder too high, according to the suit. He also notes that, to his knowledge, a black person has never held a VP position in the 19 years of Fox Sports’ exisitence, or any higher position, for that matter.
Davis had been out of the office on a leave of absence earlier this year when Fox Sports decided to let him go permanently. The termination followed his filing of a racial discrimination complaint with the DFEH, although there’s no exact information as to how close in time he was fired to the when he filed the complaint.
Source: Hip Hop Wired, “Fox Sports Executive Sues Company Over Racial Discrimination,” April 8, 2013
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