A federal jury awarded a Black woman who formerly worked in code enforcement for the city of Fresno $15 million in damages after finding the city liable for racial discrimination and retaliation last week.
La-Kebbia “Kiki” Wilson’s legal battle began in October 2019, when she and a co-worker, Charles Smith, filed a complaint against Fresno and their former supervisor, Howard Lacy, whom they accused of calling her the N-word and taking adverse employment actions against each of them for complaining about the harassment.
Smith, who is white, was awarded $400,000 by the jury.
Wilson’s rocky relationship with Lacy began soon after she was hired as an inspector in the city’s code enforcement division in 2004, according to her complaint originally filed in Fresno County Superior Court (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star). It was moved to the U.S. District Court in California in 2020.
Lacy, her supervisor, displayed an “obvious disdain for African Americans” by discussing and acting out racial stereotypes, including during a training for “using urban language” during which he donned a paper bag with a bottle in it and told people he was from West Fresno, which had a significant Black population, the lawsuit said.
Wilson claimed she heard Lacy say that code inspectors needed to complete any inspections in West Fresno in the morning because “they would all be asleep” and the employees wouldn’t be “at risk.”
Wilson also claimed that a picture of Barack Obama at her desk was desecrated with monkey ears early on in her employment, GVWire reported.
She filed numerous complaints claiming racial discrimination by Lacy and other co-workers, and settled with the city in 2012. Wilson was among eight city employees in her division laid off in 2013, and was the last to be re-hired, in January 2016, after threatening litigation.
Later in 2016 Smith was hired as a temporary employee on a team surveying blight in vacant buildings. In December he was walking in a hallway with Lacy, his direct supervisor, when a Black woman, whom he later learned was Wilson, passed by and he noticed Lacy give her a negative side-eye.
Lacy then allegedly told Smith to “stay away from her because she’s a no-good piece of sh-t” and that the only reason she got her job back was because she “played the race card.” Smith should “avoid her like the plague,” Lacy allegedly said, if Smith wanted “any chance of being hired full-time.”
Smith did as Lacy told him, he said, and avoided Wilson, whom he didn’t know. He was hired as a full-time probationary employee in April 2018.
In May 2018 Smith and Wilson were among city employees who attended a five-day state-wide training for code enforcement officials. Four days in, Lacy called Smith late one night and accused him of meeting privately with Wilson and told him he “had eyes and ears everywhere” and knew that Smith had been “exchanging nods” with Wilson during the training. Smith said this wasn’t true, but Lacy again told him to stay away from Wilson if he wanted to pass probation and continue his employment.
In June 2018, after Smith and Lacy inspected an African American woman’s property, and got back into their vehicle, Lacy allegedly said, “See, Charlie, I’m not a racist. Kiki wants to say that I’m a racist, but I’m not. I’m super nice. It’s her.” Then he added, “Kiki is an entitled nigga. I’m not saying ni—er. I’m saying nigga— N-I-G-G-A.”
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The post Called an ‘Entitled’ N-Word by Her White Boss, Black Woman Sues City of Fresno and Wins $15 Million appeared first on American Renaissance.
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