Is use of the socially radioactive N-word ever acceptable in the workplace?

A federal jury recently rejected the argument that use of the N-word among blacks can be a culturally suitable term of endearment, deciding its use in the workplace is hostile and discriminatory no matter who is working there.

Jurors awarded $250,000 in compensatory damages to a black employment agency worker who was the target of an N-word-laced rant by her black boss. They will soon return to a Manhattan federal court to decide on punitive damages.

The case against STRIVE East Harlem, and it's founder Rob Carmona allowed for a legal debate about many see as a intricate double standard about the word. Spit out in anger by a white person against a black, it's heard as a degrading slur, but when spoken by blacks it's accepted.

Brandi Johnson, a 38-year-old employee, told the court being black didn't make it any less painful to be the target of what her attorney called Carmona's "four-minute nigger tirade" about unsuitable agency apparel and unprofessional performance.

Johnson taped the March 2012 dressing down she complained to him about Carmona's verbal abuse were ignored. She said fled to the restroom and cried for 45 minutes.

She testified that she was humiliated offended and disrespected by her boss.

In closing the week-long trial, Johnson's attorney, Marjorie M. Sharpe, said Carmona never to offend anyone and that the defendants had presented information that was ridiculous.

But defense lawyers said the 61-year-old Carmona, a black man of Puerto Rican descent, used the N-word because he'd been raised by a single mother in a New York City public housing project and had overcome a heroin addiction in his teens. The lawyers said Carmona sobered up with help of drug counselors who employed tough love and tough language.