By STEFANIE COHEN
Last updated: 10:27 am
June 30, 2008
Posted: 2:51 am
June 30, 2008
A Long Island man fired for making a racist comment has filed a $5 million lawsuit in federal court.
Donald Cross, an addiction counselor in Babylon, was axed after he allegedly asked a black co-worker, Kathleen Wood, when she first heard the rhyme, "Eenie meenie, minie, moe."
Wood claimed at a disciplinary hearing that the rhyme is a racial slur that ends not with "catch a tiger by the toe" but with "catch a n - - - - r by the toe."
"My client says he . . . knew it only as a counting rhyme," said Stroble. "It's reverse discrimination."
