Strippers Win $3 Million From Club in Race Discrimination Lawsuit

JACKSON, Miss.—A group of five African-American strippers last week won a whopping judgment of more than $3 million after a federal jury decided that a strip club in Jackson, Mississippi, had discriminated against black dancers for at least the last eight years, The Mississippi Clarion Ledger reported, in a case that saw the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission representing the strippers, and which proved that employees in any industry, including the adult industry, are entitled to protection from discrimination, the EEOC said.

The club, Danny’s Downtown Cabaret in Jackson, Mississippi—as well as its predecessor club, Baby O’s Restaurant—systematically discriminated against black strippers by limiting their shifts and subjecting them to racially based verbal abuse, according to the lawsuit.

Black dancers at the club were also fined $25 for missing shifts, while white dancers were permitted a higher degree of flexibility with their schedules and were not subject to fines for skipping shifts, according to a Fox News account of the lawsuit. Club owners also required the black strippers to perform at one of their other clubs, Black Diamonds, which was considered a more dangerous place to work, and where dancers were paid lower wages than at Danny’s, the suit alleged.

In addition, the African-American strippers could have been arrested for dancing at the Black Diamonds establishment “because they were not licensed to work at that club," according to the EEOC. But if dancers refused to perform at Black Diamonds, they “were fined and sent home, and not allowed to work at Danny’s,” the federal commission said.

Danny’s continued its practice of racial discrimination over the past eight years even as the club was charged twice by the EEOC, sued three times, and was subjected to “contempt proceedings and three consent decrees,” according to an EEOC statement.

“This case shows the EEOC will sue any employer, operating any type of business, who violates federal anti-discrimination laws, especially those who will not stop discriminating even after being given repeated chances to do so,” said EEOC lawyer Marsha Rucker. “The EEOC will protect employees in any industry who are subjected to such blatant and repeated discrimination. The jury yesterday sent a powerful message to Danny's and any employer who thinks they are above the law."

William Walter, a lawyer for the club, said that his client was “disappointed” by the jury verdict and was exploring the possibility of appealing the jury’s decision, according to the Clarion Ledger.

The jury award, totaling about $3.3 million, "included $1.5 million in punitive damages $1.68 million in compensatory damages, and $130,550 in back pay,” according to the EEOC.

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