Tesla Is a 'Hotbed For Racist Behavior,' Worker Claims In Lawsuit (bloomberg.com)

An African-American employee has filed a lawsuit against Tesla, claiming their production floor is a "hotbed for racist behavior" and that black workers at the electric carmaker suffer severe and pervasive harassment. "The employee says he's one of more than 100 African-American Tesla workers affected and is seeking permission from a judge to sue on behalf of the group," reports Bloomberg. "He's seeking unspecified general and punitive monetary damages as well as an order for Tesla to implement policies to prevent and correct harassment." From the report: "Although Tesla stands out as a groundbreaking company at the forefront of the electric car revolution, its standard operating procedure at the Tesla factory is pre-Civil Rights era race discrimination," the employee said in the complaint, filed Monday in California's Alameda County Superior Court. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Marcus Vaughn, who worked in the Fremont factory from April 23 to Oct. 31. Vaughn alleged that employees and supervisors regularly used the "N word" around him and other black colleagues. Vaughn said he complained in writing to human resources and Musk and was terminated in late October for "not having a positive attitude."

Comments

Racism sucks... fight back

[Seven Spirals]

I'm glad to live in a country where a guy like this can sue the Tesla. Hopefully, he had the presence of mind to record them or get some hard evidence. EEOC complaints can be an effective avenue, so can a discrimination lawsuit. The only way to stop this kind of behavior is to bow-up and fight back.

Re: Racism sucks... fight back

[sexconker]

Learn to read. Rei referred to the lawsuits against Tesla,meaning Tesla was the defendant.
And from context it's clear Rei is referring to all the harassment/ism-based lawsuits.

Re:Racism sucks... fight back

[Rei]

Sounds like it might be much simpler:

Regarding yesterday’s lawsuit, several months ago we had already investigated disappointing behavior involving a group of individuals who worked on or near Marcus Vaughn’s team. At the time, our investigation identified a number of conflicting accusations and counter-accusations between several African-American and Hispanic individuals, alleging use of racial language, including the "n-word" and "w-word," towards each other and a threat of violence. After a thorough investigation, immediate action was taken, which included terminating the employment of three of the individuals.

Aka, according to Tesla, there absolutely was racial language used - but the plaintiff was part of it, and his contract was ended as a consequence. Also, Tesla makes some pretty damning-if-true counterallegations - among them:

- There is only one actual plaintiff (Marcus Vaughn), not 100. The reference to 100 is a complete fabrication with no basis in fact at all.

- The plaintiff was employed by a temp agency, not by Tesla as claimed in the lawsuit.

- Marcus was not fired, he was on a six month temp contract that simply ended as contracted.

- His email to Elon was about his commute and Tesla’s shuttles, which was addressed as he requested. There was no mention of racial discrimination whatsoever.

They also allege that the attorney hired has a long track record of taking on meritless lawsuits and using the threat of damage to a company's reputation in the media to get them to settle out of court.

I would say, "We'll see where this goes", except, well, we all know that while allegations get big headlines, unless there's a surprise ending and a court rules against Tesla, we'll never actually see an article covering the court dismissing the case. Just like each and every other time that something like this has happened.

Re:Uh huh

[mjwx]

SJW is at this point a descriptive shorthand as much as it is an insult.

So it's meaningless, SJW isn't an insult, except to the person who's using it.

SJW has just become a way of telling us we've said something that has butthurt you and you cant form a rational rebuttal to it. Much the same as "PC", "Leftist", "hater" and other meaningless insults thrown about when you cant argue the point.

Re:I, for one ...

[AmiMoJo]

How can words oppress people?

Calling someone the N word re-enforces stereotypes about them. If words really had no effect, people wouldn't bother with them.

I can call you every bad word in the dictionary and that would not oppress you.

Check my post history here on Slashdot. I get called an "SJW" a lot, and look at how it affects the response to my posts. Perfectly reasonable arguments result in "troll" and "flamebait" mods, and when people respond they assume all kinds of crazy things. Here is an example from today: https://slashdot.org/comments....

In other words, relentless use of terms like "SJW" have had a very real oppressive effect on me. I'm not crying victim here, this is a relatively minor annoyance and certainly nothing compared to what people of colour have to put up with.

If it was as clear and powerful as you make it, why didn't the other racial epitaphs keep their power?

Because of history. White people in particular did not start from the position of being enslaved and legally 2nd class citizens in the US.

No other race or word has the same rules applied

Can't speak for the US but you can be prosecuted just as much for calling someone a cracker as the n word in the UK.