Entertainment

Case of TV Anchor Dismissed for Using Epithet Heads to Court

Published

11 years ago

June 10, 2015

Oakland Post

Tom Burlington and Joyce Evans (Courtesy Photo)

MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former TV anchor’s discrimination lawsuit over the racial epithet that ended his career raises the question of whether the station let black staffers use the same word with impunity but not whites.

Tom Burlington, who is white, believes he lost his job over a news meeting discussion of the epithet because he said the full word instead of the hyphenated version.

The June 2007 discussion at WTXF-TV, the local Fox station, involved a story on the ceremonial “burial” of the word at an event organized by an NAACP youth group. The participants had used the word repeatedly, although the reporter did not plan to use it herself.

“Does that mean we can finally say the word ‘N—–?'” Burlington asked in the meeting, according to court documents.

At least one black colleague took offense, and tension at the station grew after co-anchor Joyce Evans, who is black, heard about the conversation, the judge found.

“Evans encouraged other co-workers to complain to management …, even urging a white co-worker to do so because ‘(t)he only people who have complained so far have been black people,'” U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick, quoting a white employee, wrote in a memo last year.

Evans, on the stand Tuesday, denied saying that but said she was concerned about Burlington’s statement because co-workers were upset.

She said that heated words were exchanged inside the station that week as the issue devolved into “a little more than a journalistic debate about what to say on television. It turned into a little something more than that, I think.”

Bad press followed in the local newspapers. Burlington, initially sent for sensitivity training, was instead told to clear his desk. By then, he had used the word several more times in his attempts to apologize to black colleagues, according to witness depositions.

“It was the continual insensitivity that Tom showed,” former WTXF general manager Mike Renda testified Tuesday. “He continued not to get it.”

Burlington, who had joined the station in 2004, was paid $90,000 for the months remaining on his contract. Renda insisted Tuesday that he was never fired.

The 2009 lawsuit against Fox TV has been on hold for years while the U.S. Supreme Court decided a legal theory involved in a parallel case. Surrick finally ruled in October it could go to trial.

“Management was clearly aware that plaintiff’s actions were being judged in light of the social norm that it is acceptable for African-Americans to use the word, but not whites. Deposition testimony suggests that some supervisors even subscribed to this view themselves,” Surrick wrote in a 30-page decision.

Burlington is seeking unspecified damages for lost income, pain and suffering, legal expenses and punitive damages.

The jury seated in the Philadelphia courtroom this week is all white. The federal courthouse pulls jurors from the city and eight suburban counties.

Burlington told jurors when the trial opened Monday that he never used the racial slur maliciously.

He now works in real estate. Evans remains on-air.

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Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

Published

6 days ago

September 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Black History

Jackie Wright Champions Bay Area Stories, Filmmakers and Cultural Institutions

As an award-winning communications professional, Wright has worked with corporations, nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, artists, and community organizations. In 2026, she expanded that work by launching an introductory public relations class for small businesses and nonprofits, offering practical tools for gaining visibility, shaping messages and building productive relationships with the media.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 30, 2026

Post News Group

Jackie Wright of Wright Enterprises. Photo courtesy of Wright Enterprises.

By Carla Thomas

Jackie Wright has spent more than two decades helping people, organizations and communities understand the power of a well-told story.

As founder and president of Wright Enterprises, a San Francisco-based strategic communications and public affairs firm, Wright has built a career spanning journalism, public relations, media relations, crisis communications, community engagement and multimedia storytelling.

Wright’s commitment to storytelling is also deeply personal. She wrote and co-directed the 15-minute documentary, “Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor,” which chronicles the story of her parents, Specialist Five (S5 Wyley Wright Jr. and Ouida Fay McClendon Wright. Her father, a U.S. Army helicopter crew chief, died in Vietnam in 1964 while serving as an honor guard during a visit by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Decades later, Wright and her siblings had their father exhumed from a segregated cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida, and their mother moved from her burial place in Georgia so the couple could be reunited at Arlington National Cemetery in 2014.

The family journey later took Wright and her sister to Vietnam, where they discovered the former military compound that had been named in honor of their father and another fallen soldier. The documentary, centered on love, war, family, racial understanding, and remembrance, earned festival recognition at screenings.

“It was quite an honor to learn about my family’s history and share it on film,” said Wright.

That filmmaking experience complements Wright’s longstanding advocacy for independent cinema. She has served as a media partner and brand ambassador for Bay Area film festivals, including the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Oakland International Film Festival, and the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.

“It’s important to help filmmakers and underrepresented stories reach broader audiences,” said Wright.

Whether promoting a neighborhood organization, championing an independent filmmaker or preserving her own family history, Wright has remained consistent. Through Wright Enterprises, she has turned communications into both a profession and a form of community service, telling stories that might otherwise go unheard.

“Our stories are an integral part of our history, and our history is not only American history, but worldwide,” she said.