Bill Maher-Linked Company Sued For Racial Discrimination Involving Maher Saying The N-Word
Patrick Howley
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A media company that counts HBO talk show host Bill Maher as an investor is being sued for racial discrimination by a fired black employee who objected to Maher’s use of the N word. The company also faces a wrongful termination charge in the lawsuit.
Shonitria Anthony was an African-American employee at ATTN: Inc., a Los-Angeles based viral video-making company in which Maher invests. Maher promoted the company in videos and in The New York Times, and even called the company “the next generation’s Huffington Post.”
But Maher’s own behavior created a massive disturbance at the company that has led to a racial discrimination lawsuit. Maher used the N-word on his HBO program in a segment with Republican Senator Ben Sasse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prqM4Q9zQFE
Deadline reports on the saga of Shonitria Anthony: “She was hired in October 2016, and about eight months before Maher used the N-word on his HBO show Real Tine with Bill Maher. The Monday after the episode aired, Anthony led a meeting of her African-American co-workers, and they agreed that “ATTN must do more than their belated apology to address the issue.” The group was concerned about the company’s “continued partnership with Maher” and “that there were no persons of color in upper management” — the latter statement ATTN says is not true. In a subsequent meeting with upper management, the suit alleges, their “responses and actions … were mechanical and lacking sincerity.”
Anthony tried to rally her African-American co-workers, the suit says, but “ATTN began to treat Anthony differently.” Upper management “began to avoid internation with Anthony,” and “ATTN criticized Plaintiff’s communication with her co-workers.” The suit says that on August 3 “ATTN terminated Anthony’s employment claiming lay-off. and that the company was moving in a different direction.”
The day after Anthony was let go from ATTN, a trade publication story noted that half of the company’s staff was laid off and that the remaining employees were shifted to video production.”
Deadline excerpt ends
Maher is also dealing with fallout from a Big League Politics report on his unpublished 1987 book “What I’ve Learned About Women,” in which he made shocking claims about unsolicited kissing and genital touching.
Big League Politics exclusively obtained a copy of this 118-page manuscript, which he decided not to go ahead and publish.
- Maher tells men to kiss women without asking permission.
- Maher says that touching a woman unsolicited with an erect penis on the dancefloor is “the highest compliment a man can give to a woman’s sexuality.”
- Maher tells men that “No” has multiple possible meanings in “female” language and advises men to run “red lights” put up by women.
- Maher advises men to “Liberate the yes inside that no” after a rejected kiss.
- Maher tells men not to ask women what they like in bed.
Maher writes about “The Female Predicament,” which he defines as: “The Female Predicament is basically the contradiction a woman has between possessing the same urges and needs as a man, yet simultaneously bearing the responsibility of being the one to put them in check…”
“Now, if all this seems manipulative and sounds like gameplaying – read on,” Maher writes at the end of one chapter…
Big League Politics has been in contact with Maher’s representation but so far has not received comment from the comedian’s handlers about his shocking statements.
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