New lawsuit accuses Missouri Apple Store of race bias
updated 07:40 pm EDT, Tue July 5, 2011
Claims few blacks are hired, none promoted
A new lawsuit has been filed against Apple and a senior store manager in St. Louis, Missouri, accusing the store of failing to promote an employee with otherwise high marks due to racial and gender discrimination, as well as retaliation when complaints were made, AppleInsider reports. Although the store does have other African-American workers, the plaintiff claims that only eight of 100 store employees are black, and that none of them have been offered management-level positions.
Barbara J. DuBose accuses Apple and her manager Robert Proffer of discrimination, saying she had been repeatedly turned down for full-time positions or promotions over the course of three and a half years of employment at the store. The company has already admitted that only eight of the 104 positions at the store are filled by African-Americans, and that only two of those employees are full-time.
The lawsuit stems from a meeting in December of 2010 where DuBois was allegedly turned down for a promotion because she "created a hostile work environment" and that other workers were "upset" with her, according to her complaint.
DuBose also filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over an e-mail sent by her manager Robert Proffer with the subject "Thug-Life" and showing him wearing an "STL" cap. She goes on to charge that the management of the store prefer hiring "lighter-skinned" African-Americans over darker-skinned ones, though she adds that very few new hires since December have been minorities of any kind.
Technology stores do tend to attract an abundance of white males as applicants, but Apple says it obeys the law in terms of creating an equal opportunity for all races and genders in hiring and promotion practices. DuBose received a right-to-sue letter from the Missouri Commission on Human Rights earlier this year, and filed the formal complaint in May.
Apple has been sued by employees before, including an age discrimination suit that originated in an Orlando, Florida store and a recent suit in New York City where two black men claim they were told by management that they were not welcome at the store. [via AppleInsider]
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Or maybe...
Maybe, just maybe B. Racecard DuBose didn't get a promotion because she didn't earn it. Could be that her fellow employees have already accused her of creating a "hostile work atmosphere", and that the kind of temperament that Apple looks for in management candidates is fairly even-keeled, and don't readily take offense to relatively benign things, like the "thug life" photo.
Seriously, how is this hosebag going to show proof positive in court that people get promoted based on the lightness of their skin color? Is she going to whip out a color chart that compares employee positions directly against that?
It's funny that I've been to that store a few times... I can't say that I've seen DuBose working there, but in my imagination she'd be the dark-skinned girl standing in the corner with her arms folded, and a permanent scowl on her face. This lawsuit won't fly. Can you countersue someone for being a dumba$$?