Native employee taunted with hanging doll

Former Native American NBC employee suing for harassment

By Jamie Schram and Lachlan CartwrightA Native American NBC studio technician was tormented about his ethnicity by cruel colleagues, who strung up an Indian doll on a noose and called it his "long-lost daughter," he claims in a lawsuit.

Faruq "Peter" Wells--who worked on the "Today" show, "Dr. Oz" and "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon"--endured the abuse after returning from a vacation and eventually quit his job when NBC's Human Resources Department told him to ignore the problem, the court papers charge.

The worst indignity came when one co-worker pelted him with the doll and barked, "Here's your long-lost daughter!" the papers say.Comment:  Many non-Indians probably would react to this the way the HR department did: by ignoring it. But the tormenters asked him about his "illegitimate children" and mocked his hair and skin color. Nor was the doll's being strung up just a coincidence, since other NBC employees had hung nooses. No, it's clear the doll was the tip of the iceberg--a manifestation of deep-seated prejudices.

For more on the subject, see Grinding Indians into the Ground and Minorities Suffer Microaggression.

Below:  "This doll was given to a former NBC staffer by a co-worker who said, 'You both have the same hair,' a suit charges."