Shocking! Tesla sued by black, gay woman over ‘unchecked’ racism at plant
A Black gay woman who worked at a Tesla Inc. factory accused the electric-vehicle maker in a lawsuit of “festering” racism by ignoring the racial and homophobic slurs and physical harm she endured. Kaylen Barker, a former contract worker who inspected brake parts, is the latest to complain that Tesla ignores discrimination based on race, sexual orientation and gender at its plants. According to her complaint, her abuse occurred even as Tesla defended another contract worker’s discrimination case in court -- which the company lost and was ordered to pay $137 million in damages.
A White coworker struck Barker with a hot grinding tool while calling her the n-word, “stupid, dumb” and a “b----,” according to her complaint, filed Tuesday in state court in Alameda County, California.
“I feel like I have been tortured and sent back in time before African Americans had civil rights,” Barker said in a statement. Barker, 25, said she was “violated physically, mentally, and emotionally” because she’s “an African American lesbian.”
Barker was hired to work at Tesla’s Lathrop, California, sub-assembly plant, by a staffing agency in February 2021. She was fired Oct. 29 after lodging complaints to supervisors, according to the complaint -- a move she calls retaliatory.
Tesla, which doesn’t have a public relations department, didn’t respond to a request to an emailed request for comment.
Almost three weeks before Barker was fired, Tesla’s former head of human resources said a jury was wrong in awarding $137 million to Owen Diaz over racial abuse at its Fremont, California, factory. Valerie Workman, who left Tesla earlier this year, said the company had “come a long way” in addressing workplace harassment since 2015 and 2016.
“Tesla claims that
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