Harrassment?

A single incident like this is unlikely to cause your employer to be liable for racial harassment. However, they certainly have the right to discipline you for making a comment, however much you regret it. You probably want to apologize profusely to those investigating, and offer to apologize to those individuals who were offended by your comments. As you probably know, you should be careful in the future about the way you express yourself. As an administrator, you must be very cautious about the words you choose.

If they fire you, then you should think about others in the same situation who have been treated differently. If other administrators of a different race, age, sex, religion, national origin, etc. made similar comments and were not fired, you may have a potential discrimination claim.

Good luck!

A single incident like that is unlikely to cause the employer to be liable for harassment/discrimination. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Florida Civil Rights Act, to recover for discrimination comments need to be more than isolated in the workplace. Thus, typically one or two such comments are not enough to prevail in a discrimination case but if an employee complaints it often does cause difficulty for the employer who has to risk the potential of a Charge of Discrimination and/or law suit, and may end up having to consider whether to pay a nominal settlement just to get rid of the complaint. In any event, you say that you have been suspended pending investigation. This is actually the best course of conduct for the employer in an effort to avoid potential liability since upon a complaint it needs to show a legitimate investigation and prompt remedial action if necessary. Frankly, depending upon the employer, you may end up getting terminated in an effort by the employer to protect against a discrimination suit.