Do you think racism in the work place is ok? How about sexism? Why not homophobia as well? Does smacking the butt of your female coworker really deserve compensation? Where do you draw the line or do you think it should all be ok in the workplace?
Protected classes exist. Libel and slander laws exist. Hate crime law exist. In every single one of those, someone is being "mean" to the other party.
Many of those laws are written in blood, since being "mean" to someone based on traits they're born with and suffering no consequences leads to people being even more "mean".
Frankly, you cannot see past the tip of your nose. Don't comment on how the law is applied.
If nobody sued against discrimination, then discrimination laws would be useless. So fighting discrimination is a public good that we all benefit from. Fighting a lawsuit is hard, especially doing it for almost a whole decade, and against a multi billion dollar corporation.
Should the guy get $10,000 for it? He's not getting paid $3 million, because somebody shouted a slur at him once.
