“The Black Guy,” a Noose, and a Lawsuit: United Airlines Faces Harassment and Retaliation Claims

A new lawsuit filed against United Airlines alleges harassment, retaliation, and systemic racial bias, including coworkers referencing “the Black guy,” telling another employee to “fetch a noose,” and escalating discipline against the plaintiff after he spoke up. “‘The Black Guy,’ a Noose, and a Lawsuit” may sound like clickbait, but these aren’t headlines — they’re direct allegations from the court filing.

Amir Brown, a former ramp agent in Denver, alleges that he faced a racially hostile work environment at United. According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado on June 16, white coworkers once told a Black colleague to “go fetch” a noose from a vending machine. Another employee reportedly shouted the N-word in a breakroom. Both were eventually fired, but United allegedly concealed the incidents and failed to address the larger culture that allowed them to happen.

Brown says that same culture followed him. After earning a spot on United’s elite Move Team, he found himself frozen out by coworkers and targeted by supervisors. One dispatcher allegedly referred to him as “the Black guy,” monitored him via surveillance footage, and assigned shifts when he was unreachable — then claimed he missed them. According to the lawsuit, Brown was denied bonding leave with his newborn, isolated in locker rooms, and disciplined for conduct that other employees routinely got away with.

When he raised concerns, Brown says the retaliation escalated until he was fired.

What This Shows

• Workplace racism doesn’t disappear after one termination — it lingers when companies treat serious incidents like isolated outbursts instead of red flags in company culture.

  
  

• Harassment lives in patterns — exclusion, tracking, double standards, and who gets written up.

  
  

• Language signals risk before lawsuits do — if anyone had reviewed internal communications, they might have seen it coming. We saw the same pattern at Boeing. Mockery, bias, and retaliation all surfaced in email and became part of a $1.1 billion reckoning.

Where HarmCheck Comes In

HarmCheck can’t stop discrimination on its own. However, it highlights the language that often precedes it — in emails and Teams messages, before patterns escalate into claims or settlements. Harassment. Retaliation. Targeting. Bias. HarmCheck uncovers toxic workplaces before lawsuits become inevitable. Our AI picks up on what policies, people, and outdated monitoring technologies sometimes miss. When racial slurs and nooses are just the surface, businesses can’t risk waiting for what lies beneath. Risk starts with language. So should prevention. 

Book a free demo with HarmCheck today: http://harmcheck.ai/demo

Carolyne Zinko is the editorial director and AI editor at Alphy.

HarmCheck by Alphy is an AI communication compliance solution that detects and flags language that is harmful, unlawful, and unethical in digital communication. Alphy was founded to reduce the risk of litigation from harmful and discriminatory communication while helping employees communicate more effectively. For more information: www.harmcheck.ai.