Digest Columnist Imani Jackson is an award-winning journalist and mass communication graduate of Grambling State University. Currently a freelance writer, she served as editor-in-chief of The Gramblinite newspaper for two and a half years. Follow her @faithspeaks on Twitter.

Alabama State University faculty, staff and personnel learned a costly racial and sexual harassment lesson Friday when a federal jury ordered upwards of $1 million in damages to three women who sued the university. The women alleged that their supervisor, Lavonette Bartley, behaved inappropriately at work. The women also said that after notifying higher-ups of inappropriateness, they were retaliated against.

A jury of four men and four women determined that Bartley’s actions warranted back pay, and compensation for mental anguish and lost leave time. Although checks will be made, the priceless elements of this case highlight a time for the HBCU community to speak out about professionalism, gender, seniority and expectations in the workplace.

Bartley has been an employee of the university for about 27 years. As a woman, her alleged behavior offers a counter-image to the overly aggressive male supervisor who belittles and/or flirts with staff, often conjured in light of harassment allegations.

She is a Black woman, and perhaps, believed that her race and gender afforded her levels of familiarity with which the plaintiffs took exception. It was reported that she used the n-word routinely and called one woman a “white b*tch.” Two plaintiffs are Black and one is biracial.

Workplace inappropriateness often occurs when people misread spaces of commonality and take more license than allowable by law. There is a fine line between operating as families, a common, honorable practice of staffs at HBCUs nationwide, and crossing the line. It is oftentimes a gray predicament in that what offends and cripples one might not be particularly inflammatory to someone else.

Workplaces are supposed to be harassment free zones. According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sexual harassment includes “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.”

Even when spaces are filled with women, workers must remember that we are paid for work—not to ask about or display body art. It was alleged that Bartley commented on one plaintiff’s body and requested that she strip to show her tattoos. The EEOC further states that victims and harassers can be of the same sex.

With regard to peppering discourse with n-bombs and white b-bombs, one should note that racial discrimination and harassment includes everything from racial slurs to offensive or derogatory remarks about a person’s race or color, and racially offensive symbols.

While ASU’s sizable payout will undoubtedly spark debate and cause thought from products and affiliates of HBCUs, the allegations should remind professionals that, in some instances, we really do not know each other like that. Personal lifestyles, preferences and motives often do not belong in work environments. What we do after hours should be carefully couched, if addressed at all, once we clock in.

It is not about cultivating paranoia or discouraging camaraderie and sisterhood, but taking into account individuals’ feelings, comfort and stability.

Time will tell if ASU will appeal the jury’s decision. A statement on the university’s behalf said that ASU “will continue to ensure that all of our employees are guaranteed equal protection, not only to the letter of the law, but also to our higher expectations.”