Racial Harassment Cases Category Archives — Sexual Harassment Lawyer Blawg Published by New York Sexual Harassment Attorneys

Employee Files Federal Suit Alleging She Was Sexually Harassed at CVS–And Only Her Father Finally Stopped It

June 12, 2025 | by Employment Law Firm

A young woman has filed a Complaint in federal court alleging that she was sexually and racially harassed by an older man while she worked as a cashier at the CVS in Port Jefferson, New York, beginning in August of 2021. The following allegations are taken from the filed Complaint.

Her harasser, a CVS employee, touched her breast, lured her into a back room and cornered her, told her he knew spots where there were no security cameras and implied he could do whatever he wanted to her.

By February 2022 she had told Human Resources what the man was doing to her including that he had touched her breast. But CVS kept scheduling her for shifts alone with him, and he kept doing the same things, even while other people were there. She tried again to stop him, this time complaining to her supervisor in the store, but it still didn’t stop.

COSTCO Asks Employee to Sign a “Confidentiality” Form that the National Labor Relations Board Already Decided Violates the Law

May 29, 2025 | by Employment Law Firm

When a Costco Wholesale employee in Newport News, Virginia filed an EEOC charge alleging mockery of his Arabic accent, derogatory comments and gestures making fun of his “smell,” his coworker spraying Lysol at him, and other racial harassment, COSTCO asked him to sign a company “Confidentiality” form as part of its investigation—but the National Labor Relations Board, or “NLRB,” has already decided COSTCO’s form violates federal law.

On May 9, 2025, the Store Manager at the Newport News location approached “Jay,” the employee who filed the charge. He presented Jay with a form called “Acknowledgement of Confidentiality for Investigations.” The Manager read the form out loud and asked Jay to sign it. Among other things, it included this language:

I have not recorded any part of this interview and I acknowledge that electronic recordings of any conversation without the consent of all parties is considered a violation of company policy and may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.

EEOC Charge alleges COSTCO Vice President Paul Pulver failed to stop racial harassment

March 27, 2025 | by Employment Law Firm

These facts are taken from the EEOC Charge against COSTCO. The victim and harasser’s names have been changed. For many years, “Jay,” a Costco Wholesale employee in Newport News, Virginia, endured racial harassment from his coworker, “Sharon.” Jay is Egyptian. Sharon regularly mocked his accent, made derogatory gestures suggesting he had a bad smell, sprayed Lysol toward him, and encouraged coworkers to ridicule him, because of his race, national origin and ethnicity. Despite repeatedly reporting these incidents to management for many years the harassment continued.

When he complained to his Front-End Manager on September 20, 2023, the Manager replied that she “can’t force employees to respect” him. An Operations Manager later acknowledged the harassment, but rather than helping to end it, suggested that Jay transfer to another warehouse for a “fresh start.”

On October 11, 2024 Jay escalated his concerns to the Store Manager who responded by saying there’s “something to earning an employee’s respect.” Even after bringing the issues to Costco Vice President Paul Pulver in mid-October 2024 the harassment continued.

White Supremacist, Nazi and KKK threats against Black employee of Pipeline Plastics, alleges EEOC Charge

December 5, 2024 | by Employment Law Firm

According to a Charge of Discrimination filed with the EEOC against Pipeline Plastics, our client (“the victim”) was the only African American employee at Pipeline Plastics working in the yard on his shift. Pipeline employs very few African Americans. On July 23, 2024, the victim arrived at work at Pipeline Plastics in Levelland, TX to find KKK and white supremacist graffiti in his forklift:

According to the EEOC Charge, when he reported it to the Plant Manager (“the PM”), he said “yeah I saw that and I knew it was going to make you feel some type of way.” The PM could have wiped it off before the victim arrived so he would not have had to endure it, but chose not to do that. According to a sworn statement by an eye witness, the PM told the victim to “wipe it off” himself. The witness testified that after this incident, Pipeline failed to take any action to prevent threats against its African American employees. The Charge alleges the PM just told the victim, “don’t worry about it.”

Pipeline should have held an all-hands meeting informing employees that racial harassment would not be tolerated. The Charge states that Pipeline never did, and that Pipeline should have taken other steps to find the culprit and prevent further racially threatening harassment.

EXCEL USA Management Testimony Reveals Retaliatory Treatment of African American Employee Who Filed Racial Discrimination Suit, WELDON MOORE v. EXCEL CONTRACTORS, LLC, d/b/a EXCEL USA, 3:21-cv-00698-JWD-RLB

February 9, 2023 | by Employment Law Firm

Employment Law Firm PC represents Weldon Moore an African American truck driver who worked at EXCEL USA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Moore claims, among other things, that he was subjected to a retaliatory termination for filing the racial discrimination claims against EXCEL in federal court. Vice President of Operations over the Lake Charles division of EXCEL, Shaun Dunn, admitted in sworn testimony that days after EXCEL was served with the Summons and Complaint filed in court, he called Mr. Moore and advised, “don’t return to work until you hear back.”

Mr. Moore did not hear back from EXCEL for a full month, and did so only after he filed an Amended Complaint in Court alleging retaliatory termination. Upon filing the Amended Complaint, Mr. Moore received a text message from Dunn stating that Mr. Moore would be suspended for three weeks. Dunn testified that he alone made the decision to suspend Mr. Moore for three weeks, and that the “main” cause for suspension was Mr. Moore’s use of Louisiana Pigment’s equipment without prior authorization, a claim that is not supported in the record. Indeed, Dunn admits that no one from Louisiana Pigment complained about or commenced investigation into Mr. Moore’s use of Louisiana Pigment’s equipment. Dunn testified that the reason for allowing a month to pass before notifying Mr. Moore of the suspension was that he sought Louisiana Pigment’s approval for Mr. Moore to return to the job site and spoke with Louisiana Pigment manager Chris Jennings for such approval. However, Chris Jennings testified that no such conversation took place. Former EXCEL Safety Manager Doug Stephson testified that he had never heard of an EXCEL employee being suspended—let alone, suspended for three weeks—for unauthorized use of Louisiana Pigment equipment.

The testimony to date points to EXCEL’s pretext for its termination of Mr. Moore in retaliation for Mr. Moore’s protected activity of filing claims of racial discrimination against EXCEL. Deposition testimony from several witnesses, both former employees of EXCEL and other non-EXCEL employed witnesses corroborate Mr. Moore’s claims of regularly recurring racial harassment by Mr. Moore’s former supervisor at the Louisiana Pigment facility in Lake Charles, Jeff Addison. Addison resigned from EXCEL after Mr. Moore made several complaints to management and Human Resources concerning his racial harassment, but was never the subject of an investigation by EXCEL. Addison himself admitted in sworn testimony that the term “Black mother****er”—a term Mr. Moore was regularly subjected to while employed at EXCEL—was in use at the EXCEL project site at Louisiana Pigment, as were racist jokes. Witnesses testified that Addison regularly referred to Mr. Moore as “Black mother****er” at the job site.

Former iHeart Media Employee Alleges Racial Stereotyping and Retaliation

January 26, 2023 | by Employment Law Firm

Employment Law Firm PC represent an account executive for iHeart Media in Harrisonburg, Virginia alleges he was subjected to racial harassment and stereotyping by his supervisor the Market President, followed by retaliation when he complained.

iHeart Media is a mass media corporation, and is the nation’s largest owner of radio stations, including several in the Harrisonburg area. Leon Bowen, an African-American man, worked at iHeart’s Harrisonburg location selling radio advertising to local businesses. Bowen was the only African-American staff member. Right away, Bowen noticed that iHeart’s local client base was almost entirely white, even though the local community was racially diverse. Bowen’s successful efforts to bring black-owned businesses on as clients appeared to anger his supervisor, the Market President. And Bowen saw that the office highlighted numerous holidays throughout the year, but did nothing to celebrate Juneteenth. During the Olympics, when staff members were given countries to represent, Bowen’s coworkers were all assigned “non-black” countries – while he was assigned Jamaica.

As reported in local media, during a team meeting video call, the Market President looked at Bowen, who was wearing a hoodie, and told him “oh, you look cozy.” There was no dress code for team meetings. By way of explaining his hoodie, Bowen simply responded that it was cold that day. In front of his coworkers, the Market President responded: “Well, I hope you’re not going to see clients like that.” Bowen told her he did not plan to. Following the call, she kept Bowen on the line, asking him if she was “sensing some attitude.” Bowen politely but firmly defended himself as a good employee. Bowen immediately reached out to the Area and Regional Presidents to report his supervisor’s mistreatment. In response, the Market President falsely claimed that Bowen had called her a “bitch”—employing stereotypes of black men as aggressive or angry. The Area President directed Bowen to work from home until after the holidays. Bowen complained again to an Employee Advisor for iHeart, who claimed the company would conduct an investigation.

Carpenter Working on Meta Construction Project Menaced by Noose

January 24, 2023 | by Employment Law Firm

As reported in Local Press, a Redmond, Washington-area carpenter for BNBuilders was threatened with a noose bearing his name at a Meta (formerly Facebook) worksite, after being subjected to the n-word, “jokes” about picking cotton, and other racially derogatory remarks and conduct from his supervisor and coworkers. Employment Law Firm PC represents the carpenter, James Myers. Two men have since been charged criminally in connection with the noose.

Employer BNBuilders was the general contractor on Meta’s Building X construction site in Redmond, Washington. Press reports that carpenter James Myers, an African-American man, endured racially offensive comments from early in his employment with BNBuilders. Multiple times employees called him “black boy” when asking him to complete tasks. His supervisors made extremely racially offensive “jokes”: an Assistant Superintendent repeatedly told Myers “I’m woke” in a derisive manner, then asked Myers’s Lead, “are you woke?” His lead replied, “I ain’t racist– n***** n***** n*****!”–repeating the N-word several times. The Assistant Superintendent and Lead then laughed, while Myers watched in shock.

More than once, his Assistant Superintendent racially harassed Myers using “cotton”: in front of multiple employees in the field. His AS walked up to Myers and told him: “James, I got something for you.” Myers saw that something was clasped in his AS’ hand. Conscious of all the tradesworkers watching, Myers told him “no,” and tried to deflect him. His AS insisted, “open it!” He then took and opened Myers’s hand, and handed him a ball of “cotton”–the white fiber from cottonwood trees, resembling that of agricultural cotton plants. His AS told Myers, “I picked it for you!” and laughed uproariously.

University of Illinois Employees Ask Court to Grant Racial Discrimination Class Status in Move for Broad Changes

June 30, 2022 | by Employment Law Firm

University Systematically Whitewashed Valid Harassment Complaints by Black Employees

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign employees Derick Brown, Atiba Flemons, and Jeffrey Taylor are suing the University for racial discrimination and racial harassment. Central District of Illinois, 2:19-cv-02020. They have filed a motion to certify a class of thousands of Black employees seeking a Court Order ending illegal racial harassment. The motion shows, based on records produced by the University, that over the class period of six years the University has corroborated exactly zero complaints of discrimination against Black employees.

Mr. Brown, a machinist at the University’s Facilities & Services department, whose initial complaint in 2017 concerned a coworker’s donning a KKK-style hood while other coworkers, including Mr. Brown’s supervisor, looked on and laughed, testified to the University’s indifference: “How can you not say that’s racial when the KKK hood over a guy’s face that are all white? And that’s not racial to a black man? And they find it not racial?”

EXCEL USA Engages in Retaliatory Discharge Against Victim of Racially Hostile Work Environment according to lawsuit: WELDON MOORE v. EXCEL CONTRACTORS, LLC, d/b/a EXCEL USA, 3:21-cv-00698-JWD-RLB

May 27, 2022 | by Employment Law Firm

Employment Law Firm PC represents Weldon Moore, an African American truck driver who worked at EXCEL USA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As alleged in the Amended Complaint the Superintendent of EXCEL’s operations at Louisiana Pigment plant in Lake Charles racially harassed Mr. Moore, often calling him and other African American employees “Black motherf*****”, telling Mr. Moore that he wished he could call his African American coworker the “N” word, and repeating a disgusting “joke”: “Mo, if a Black man and a Mexican man fell off a high-rise building, who do you think would hit the ground first?” When Mr. Moore (known as “Mo”), replied out of shock, “I don’t know, boss,” the Superintendent laughed and said, “Who gives a f***?”

As alleged in the Amended Complaint Mr. Moore complained first to Human Resources, in the presence of the EXCEL Louisiana Pigment plant project manager. The Human Resources representative said that she would keep his complaint on file. But neither Human Resources nor the EXCEL project manager engaged in any follow-up inquiries. The racial harassment not only continued, but Mr. Moore’s complaint to HR also resulted in retaliation from the Superintendent. He cut Moore’s days. When Mr. Moore spoke up about these changes to his boss, his boss simply replied, “You Black motherf*****, if you don’t like it, then drag the f*** up,” which Mr. Moore understood to mean “quit.”

In his next complaint Human Resources forced Mr. Moore to explain the racial harassment in the presence of his harasser, the Superintendent. The Superintendent stood up and screamed at Mr. Moore, “you mother*****” and stormed out of the meeting. Incredibly, he kept his job. When Mr. Moore returned to his work station, a member of management pulled up in his truck, handed him his business card, stating, “I don’t ever want you to let him or anyone else talk to you that way. If he does that again, call me.”

A Virginia man alleges that his coworker called him “boy” numerous times and compared him to a monkey–and then handed him a bag of fried chicken as an “apology.”

May 12, 2022 | by Employment Law Firm

Marcus Staples worked for Advanced Technology Recycling, an electronics de-manufacturing company headquartered in Pontiac, Illinois, with seven locations across the country. In Staples’ Complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, he alleges that whenever the company’s project manager was on site, he referred to Staples and Staples’ African-American coworkers as “boy”—while referring to white co-coworkers by their given names. One of Staples’ coworkers has stated under oath that he “was so upset” by the manager’s “offensive racism, I frequently complained to [our supervisor] about it myself. During 2019, I complained to [her] about [the] behavior on approximately a weekly basis, either on my own or with co-workers. She said she would take care of it, but nothing changed to remedy the situation.”

The conduct escalated: Staples alleges that the manager derisively compared him to a monkey, and when Staples was offended and upset, the next day the manager handed him a baggie of fried chicken in front of multiple coworkers as a mocking “apology.”

Staples alleges in his Complaint, and multiple co-workers confirm under oath, that when the manager returned to the worksite after these incidents, he resumed calling Staples and his African-American coworkers “boy” — the same as before. Staples alleges that the company went on to retaliate against him for filing an EEOC charge, baselessly disciplining him. When he refused to work through the EEOC to try to settle the charge [which indicated that Staples planned to sue], Staples alleges ATR fired him.