*(Via Reel Urban News) – When Isiah Washington reported to work at the Sierra Aluminum Company in Riverside, Ca. in April 2015, he hardly thought he would become embroiled in a 21st century David and Goliath struggle with his employer.
Standing a little over six feet tall with a slim build and gentle demeanor, the young African American man, joined by top civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, told Reel Urban News about a racist experience in the workplace out of the Jim Crow South.
Above his work area, Washington spotted a large white plastic sheet with eyeholes hanging in the air – a frightening reminder of the Ku Klux Klan’s “glory suit.” After he complained, Washington claims in a lawsuit filed against Sierra Aluminum, he was fired.
“We moved across the street to do some work and I moved into a workstation and started working with my partner and I looked up and I see this white sheet hanging over the top of my workstation.”
Speaking softly, Washington says that he was not the only person to see the white sheet object hanging in the air. “I told my partner ‘Look at this.’ Then I stopped working.”
The lawsuit states: ‘The plastic sheet was white in color and it clearly had eyehole cuts to make it appear as a Ku Klux Klan hood, known worldwide as a symbol of racial hatred and terror against African Americans.
‘This white, sharply pointed hood of a full faced sheet with eyeholes hanging, as seen by Washington at his workstation, is the most distinctive feature of the Ku Klux Klan and is known as the ‘glory suit’.”
Washington maintains that when he asked management to remove the sheet he was rebuffed. “I asked for them to take it down and my supervisor Lupe said, ‘Why, why?’ I remember a couple of people coming around and they were giggling.
It was like everything just moved in slow motion. And then [Lupe] called his nephew, a forklift driver operator over. They told me to get back to work.”
The lawsuit states that the white sheet remained for another hour before it was removed.
Washington has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against Sierra Aluminum. Bloom was direct in describing the brutal history that blacks associate with a white hood in America.
“Let’s be clear what a white sheet with two eyeholes cut out of it hanging over the workstation of an African American really means,” says Bloom. “It’s a very clear symbol of the KKK, the Ku Klux Klan, which is one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the U.S. that specifically terrorized African Americans throughout our history.”
The legal complaint states the white sheet was 20 to 30 feet in the air directly in front of Washington’s workstation. Bloom says the KKK’s white sheet serves a dual purpose. “It’s not just a symbol of overt racism – it’s designed to instill fear. And from what you can see, Isiah Washington even sitting here today, it did instill fear. And it would in any reasonable person.”
Washington began work in 2014 as a packer in a temporary capacity at Sierra Aluminum. According to the lawsuit, Washington became a full-time employee in March 2015, working upwards of 30 to 65 hour each week.
Washington describes his early days as an employee as challenging at best.
Get the rest of the story at Reel Urban News.
