Secret Service Supervisors Cracked Racist Jokes

Black agents had often complained about racism among their bosses secret service. For years, African-American agents in the Secret Service complained that racism was rampant and that supervisors not only ignored racist incidents but often participated. In recent weeks, when a noose was found in a breakroom used by a Black agent at the Secret Service training facility in Beltsville , Md. , it added new fuel into a longstanding investigation into charges of racial discrimination at the agency.

In a federal court filing on Friday, attorneys for 10 African-American Secret Service agents disclosed e-mails shared by supervisors that demeaned Blacks and even joked about assassinating the Rev. Jesse Jackson, whom they refer to as “the Righteous Reverend.” In other e-mails, they joke about interracial sex and mock Black slang in talk of a “Harlem Spelling Bee.” The 10 e-mails included in the filing, written between 2003 and 2005, were generated by 20 Secret Service supervisors, The New York Times reports.

The Black agents filed a job discrimination suit, arguing that they were denied promotions and forced to work in a hostile environment, but the case has dragged on since 2000. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren told the Times, “We are deeply disappointed by any communication or action on the part of our employees that exhibits racial or other insensitivity.” He added that the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security had been notified. E. Desmond Hogan, who represents the Black agents, told the newspaper that the agents were “shocked but not surprised by the late production of significant evidence of racism at high levels in the Secret Service.” Said Hogan, “The government’s delay follows a pattern of the Secret Service stonewalling plaintiffs and ignoring court orders, depriving African-American agents of the fundamental evidence of race discrimination that is key to their claims.”

Are you surprised about the charges within a federal law enforcement agency?