Steel your nerves, people. Here's some local news about some alleged monumental ignorance.
An African-American woman named Tishay Wright is suing her former employer, Pleasanton-based Southland Construction Inc. because her bosses were allegedly insane bigots. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on Wright's allegations that in addition to numerous racist and sexist remarks, the company's CEO Kenneth Hayden and his wife behaved in an aggressively racist manner.
For example, per KRON 4, for Christmas, the Haydens reportedly gave Wright a purse bedazzled with the Confederate flag. Inside the crazy purse were pictures of Hayden and his wife Anita dressed as President Donald Trump and one of his supporters posing before Confederate flags and signs that claim, "The Southland Will Rise Again."
Get it? Because they're Southland Construction Inc.
Wright, who grew up in Berkeley, had to Google "confederate flag" just to make sure she was really seeing what she thought she was seeing. "I couldn't believe what I had received from my bosses. It takes me back to slavery days. I am not a slave," said Wright.
The "gift" was allegedly in retaliation for her having previously complained about Mr. Hayden referring to her and another female employee using a sexist swear word, as KRON 4 reports.
The lawsuit also accuses Hayden of saying things like "We'll just let the Mexicans do it," and that he could just pay Mexican people with beer.
You can check out excerpts from the lawsuit on CBS 5, but in reading them, it appears the purse "gift" was retaliation for Wright's continued complaints about her hostile work environment. (Yes, they allegedly responded to an employee's complaints by giving her a Confederate flag purse filled with photos of her bosses costumed as Donald Trump.)
In case you're unfamiliar with Southland Construction Inc., here's their mission statement:
To serve the construction needs of commercial, retail, and industrial businesses with integrity, quality and accountability, while meeting budgets and timelines in order to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and restore honesty to the marketplace.
A vague skimming of the Bible reveals that Jesus would rather us love one another than meet budgets and timelines in the construction of retail businesses in the greater Pleasanton area.
"I've dealt with discrimination cases, race-based cases," said Wright's attorney Christopher Dolan. "I've never dealt with something so offensive, so proud to inflict an injurious message on another person."
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