The N Word Was Used Toward A Tesla Employee

It is totally racist

Racism continues and is often blatant.

There are cases where African Americans may use the N word such as with teenage boys who may be joking with each other or by comedians. Normally, it should NOT be used in this day and age. It is a very negative and derogatory expression of racism and hate when it is uttered.

Business Insider ran a story by Grace Dean which was about a former employee at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California. Tesla was told to pay $1 million to the Black man who said supervisors called him the N-word.

The racial discrimination case was brought by Melvin Berry. An arbitrator said that Tesla was liable because it did not take action when supervisors called Berry the N word. Tesla denied the allegations.

The case was settled by arbitration instead of in a regular court case. That made it more confidential. However, it is known that Berry started working at Tesla in 2015 as a materials handler. He has said that he was forced to push a heavy cart and work longer hours after he confronted a supervisor about the racial slur.

Tesla claimed that there was no written evidence that Berry had brought the matter up to human resources or to his co-workers. Tesla further claimed that Berry left the job voluntarily. They said his losses amounted to $148 at the most.

The arbitrator said that it was a difficult case but that she believed that the two supervisors of Berry had used the slur. She said that their behavior had “created a racially hostile work environment.”

There were also reports of racial symbols such as swastikas being at the plant. Other employees had complained of that as well.

Most of the $1.02 million which Tesla has been told to pay will go to attorneys’ fees and legal costs, Tesla was told to pay $266,278.50 in damages to Berry. That includes $100,000 to compensate for emotional distress.

Other Black employees at the Tesla plant have stated that they also had experienced racial slurs of being called the N word.

Does Elon Musk have anything to say about such actions happening at Tesla? Perhaps he should if he has any influence with the individual plants.

Tesla is a large and influential company. They should not be allowing their supervisors to act in that manner toward Black employees. Racism has no place in the work environment. It is too prevalent in life.