In MCAD v. Kahalas, decided Nov. 17 by Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination Hearing Officer Jason Barshak, complainant Ambroise claimed she was racially harassed and then fired because of her race and because of her complaints about the harassment. (Ambroise was a paralegal at Kahalas's law office; she had graduated from law school, but hadn't passed the bar, in four tries. Ltayf, Ellison, Calloway, and Clancy were other support staff, and Welsh and Bongiorno were lawyers.) Here are the hearing officer's findings of facts:
"HATE NICKELS BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT DIMES COMMENT"
On or about November 3, 2017, Ambroise was working late in the paralegals' room. Kahalas saw her and said to Ambroise that he was going to call her nickels, because she hates nickels, because they are not dimes, and asked if she was trying to get ahead ("hate nickels because they are not dimes comment"). I credit Kahalas' testimony that he was making a joke that he had made for years. Kahalas explained its meaning. The joke was that one who hates nickels because they are not dimes is a person who wants to make more money. Based on Kahalas' credible testimony concerning what he said to Ambroise, I do not credit Ambroise's testimony to the extent it implies Kahalas only said that he was going to call her nickels.
Ambroise did not know what Kahalas meant by his comment. After speaking to a friend, she had an understanding that it was a term relative to the value of an enslaved black person. Ambroise then performed a Google search and one of the results was the Urban Dictionary, a website where people submit their own definition of cultural slang. She searched the Urban Dictionary and found about a page and a half of definitions of "nickels" with five to ten definitions per page. Nowhere under the definitions of "nickels" was there a definition with racial connotation. None of the definitions of "nickels" stated that it meant "nickels n-word" or referenced the n-word. {Witnesses used the term "n-word" to reference the word "nigger" and it is used herein to connote the same.} After the definitions of "nickels", there were words containing the term "nickel(s)" like "nickels n-word" and "nickel dollar" which had their own definitions. According to Urban Dictionary, "nickels n-word" meant a poor black person who pays in change.
At the time Ambroise heard Kahalas' comment, she did not associate it with "nickels n-word." At hearing, Ambroise admitted that she had no reason to believe that Kahalas has ever used the Urban Dictionary. It was only after speaking with a friend, and looking up the term "nickels" on Urban Dictionary that she concluded the comment had racial connotations….
