An arbitrator has ordered The Washington Post to pay back wages to columnist Karen Attiah after finding the paper lacked “good and sufficient cause” to fire her and that her termination violated her labor agreement. The ruling, issued in August, also directed the Post to reinstate her employment.
Attiah celebrated the decision publicly on Tuesday, posting a video of herself dancing on X. “POV: Channeling my inner Rihanna because I won my case against the @washingtonpost — and they owe me a year’s worth of back pay,” she wrote.
“I’m still processing everything, but overall, I am happy I have been vindicated and ordered reinstated with back pay,” Attiah told Fox News Digital. “But in the meantime, I just wanted to put on a pretty gold dress, vibe to Rihanna’s music and eat cake! I wanted to be as loud about the win as possible so that other journalists will not be afraid to speak the truth.”
Attiah said the celebratory post was inspired by a video from her party and that she wanted to “show that I take celebrating this huge win — for me, the Guild [the Washington Post union] and for journalism — very seriously!”
It is not yet clear whether she will actually return to her job at the Post despite the arbitrator’s order. A spokesperson for the paper told Fox News Digital that the Post respects the arbitration process but declined to comment further.
Posts About Charlie Kirk Sparked the Firing
Attiah was terminated last year after a series of posts she made on the social media platform Bluesky in the wake of the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk drew widespread criticism.
“Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a White man that espoused violence is… not the same as violence,” Attiah wrote at the time. In another post, she wrote that “part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for White men who espouse hatred and violence.”
Attiah also drew criticism for misquoting Kirk in a separate post, attributing to him a statement that “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a White person’s slot.” Kirk’s actual remarks, made during a July 2023 episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show” while discussing affirmative action, differed from that characterization, though they included similar language about “brain processing power” directed at public figures he named.
After the backlash, Attiah said she had been fired by the Post, with a termination letter describing her posts as “unacceptable” and “gross misconduct.”
Attiah filed a legal challenge over her firing last fall and announced in June that she and the Post would proceed to arbitration, which concluded with the August ruling in her favor.
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