Owen Diaz can put up with a lot. As a Black man in America, racial insults are practically part of everyday life. But Diaz says what he experienced as an employee at Tesla surpassed everything.
In 2015 and 2016, the 53-year old worked in a Tesla production facility in Fremont, California. There he operated elevators and watched that car parts and metal made it onto the right assembly line. Instead of a pleasant and professional work atmosphere, however, he was regularly subjected to such unacceptable conditions that he finally felt driven to quit. Derogatory comments and hate messages became part of his daily life at the production facility, Diaz said.
Now, nearly five years later, Diaz is facing his former employer in court. He is suing Tesla for racism and discrimination. The factories were a “hotbed of racist behavior,” according to the indictment, which will be heard in a California court on Wednesday. Black employees at Tesla, it says, are subjected to constant and serious harassment.
Nazis and the KKK
The automaker run by Elon Musk, for its part, denies the allegations. In Diaz’s case, Tesla said it had no knowledge of any possible misconduct. The company reiterated that it objects to any form of discrimination, harassment or unfair treatment and that every allegation of such is taken seriously and investigated. “We will never be able to stop every single person in the factory from engaging in inappropriate conduct, but we will continue to do everything that we can to encourage the right behavior and to take action whenever something bad happens.”
For Diaz, it’s not nearly enough. He wants compensation for the mental suffering he endured. “You hear, ‘Hey, boy, come here, N—–.’ or ‘Go back to Africa,'” Diaz told The New York Times in 2018. “You ask yourself at some point, ‘Where is my line?'”
Source: DW
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