Seattle’s equity training lands city in trial over race-based workplace claims

The incidents stretched back years. In 2015, a manager discouraged him from applying for a supervisory role, saying she wanted someone “bilingual” with “contacts within one of the marginalized communities.” The job went to a person of color. That same year, another manager asked what he could “possibly offer our department … being a straight white male.” 

Then came the trainings. At a 2019 session, trainers stated that “white people are cannibals,” that “racism is in white people’s DNA,” and that “white people are like the devil,” according to the court’s opinion. Coworkers called him a “white supremacist.” A supervisor called him a “colonist” and allegedly “physically accosted” him. He filed an EEOC charge in December 2020. 

The city investigated, but he withheld cooperation over what he saw as investigator bias. The complaint was rejected. 

The appeals court found the incidents “sufficiently numerous, frequent, and severe” to warrant a trial. Workplace training addressing racial barriers “are not inherently discriminatory,” the court held – but they “may violate Title VII when they create a racially hostile work environment.” 

The worker did not succeed on everything. The court affirmed dismissal of his constructive discharge, disparate treatment, and retaliation claims, and found he lacked standing on his equal protection challenge because he could not show personal injury from any racial classification.