ViacomCBS Executives Sued for Racial Discrimination, Allegedly Stereotyped Employee as 'Dumb Latina'

David NgDecember 14, 2021

A former ViacomCBS employee has reportedly sued the media giant claiming she faced racial discrimination from company executives, who allegedly stereotyped her as a “dumb Latina” before firing her for complaining about her treatment.

Patricia Senior worked in consumer products at Nickelodeon from 2016 to 2020, according to a complaint filed this week in a New York federal court, as reported by multiple news outlets. She alleges her bosses initially didn’t think she could speak fluent English and consistently demeaned her.

“At ViacomCBS, however, Senior was stereotyped as a ‘dumb Latina,’ prohibited from writing emails to her boss; consigned to doing clerical work and housekeeping, notwithstanding her having a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University,” the lawsuit reportedly states.

Senior alleges that on her first day, a vice president she reported to dictated emails for her to send to other executives. After a month, the lawsuit claims, she was not allowed to email one the company’s senior vice presidents over what was described as “minor grammatical mistakes.”

The lawsuit alleges other team members who sent e-mails with spelling and grammatical errors were not punished in the same way.

Senior, who identifies as “Latinx,” claims other “Latinx” employees at ViacomCBS, were denied “well-deserved promotions, passed over for professional opportunities, and made to do unskilled housework and menial work beneath their respective job titles.”
ViacomCBS has staked out several far left-wing political positions in recent years. The media conglomerate — which owns CBS, Paramount, and Comedy Central — supported the Black Lives Matter movement and publicly condemned Georgia’s recent voter integrity law.

In a tweet last year, the media giant said it condemns “all acts of racism, discrimination, and senseless acts of violence.”