A Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Triggered Murder for Hire
Be careful who you sue
The 1980s class-action lawsuit against Chippendales is much more than a crime story; featured last year on ABC TV.
“Chippendale’s history of racism is not well documented.” (Tammy M.)
The backstory of the lawsuit underscores multicultural allies fighting against discrimination.
When a UCLA law student, Don Gibson, was denied entry to a famous nightclub because of his race, he filed a lawsuit that grew to class-action status.
Most business owners would not hire a contract killer to murder a plaintiff for filing a racial discrimination lawsuit.
But in this case, the business defendant was not an ordinary run-of-the-mill racist because the founder of Chippendales solved his business problems using murder for hire.
Whoa!
While I knew about the horror story years earlier, it was only through the lens of deadly business partnerships. That the tactic extended to customers was not initially apparent.
The founder of Chippendales used several tactics after Gibson filed his lawsuit to counter what the nightclub said were baseless claims.
Medium writer Tammy M. describes how claimants used clever means to gather proof for their lawsuit. Remarkably, excuses used by business owners in the 1980s to refuse entry to African American customers are still in use today.
Plaintiff Don Gibson refused to back down because of principles that went far beyond gaining permission for African American college students and their dates or significant others to dance in a nightclub.
Thank you for reading.