Second Circuit Revives Hostile Work Environment Claim Against NYC Department of Education for Anti-White Bias
Second Circuit Revives Hostile Work Environment Claim Against NYC Department of Education for Anti-White Bias
On September 25, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Chislett v. New York City Department of Education held that a white educator may pursue a hostile work environment claim after she was subjected to repeated negative comments about her race following mandatory workplace diversity training.
The plaintiff, an educator who worked at the Department of Education, alleged that during and after implicit bias training sessions, colleagues accused her of being racist, “white and fragile,” and benefiting from white privilege. The Court noted that while diversity training is not inherently discriminatory, “what matters here is the way the trainings were conducted.” The sessions, the Court explained, risked liability when discussions focused on a “constant drumbeat of essentialist, deterministic and negative language” about one race. The Court borrowed this language from an out-of-Circuit district court ruling in Pennsylvania and is the first time the Second Circuit has articulated this.
The Court also recognized that racially charged remarks aimed at others, but made in the plaintiff’s presence, can still contribute to a hostile workplace, while further clarifying that calling someone racist “by itself” does not constitute racial discrimination or forms the basis of a hostile work environment claim. The Department of Education’s failure to address her complaints about the offensive statements, and supervisors’ apparent tolerance of the behavior, further strengthened her case.
In reversing the lower court’s granting of summary judgment on the hostile work environment claim, the Second Circuit held that a jury could find the Department of Education maintained a “policy and practice” that fostered racial harassment against white employees. This is a rare instance where such a claim was allowed to proceed under the legal standards of the Supreme Court, as “policy and practice” claims tend to fail.
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Alexa N. Salazar is an Associate in Faruqi & Faruqi’s New York City office. Alexa’s practice is focused on Employment Law.
