Tyrese Gibson, an American actor, filed a $1 million complaint alleging that he was the target of racial profiling and discrimination on February 11 while visiting a Home Depot store in West Hills, California.continue reading
The 44-year-old Fast & Furious actor said in court filings filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday that an altercation at the business resulted in the violation of his civil rights and the rights of two construction workers he employed.
According to court documents cited by Fox11, Gibson’s two employees Eric Mora and Manual Hernandez are also identified as plaintiffs in the complaint.
The Watts, Los Angeles native alleges in the case, which he is also seeking punitive damages, that the business violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and had been irresponsible in its recruiting, supervision, and retention of employees.
Based on how much he believes he has spent at the home improvement business over the years, Gibson stated in the legal filing that the $1 million was for compensatory damages.
The actor “experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling first-hand inside the Home Depot retail store in West Hills,” according to Gibson’s attorneys.
The statement went on to say: “The company needs to comprehend that treating people unfairly and racial profiling of customers have consequences.”
Gibson and the plaintiffs are “committed to doing their part to advance civil rights and put an end to the despicable practise of discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling at the Home Depot, and, by extension, all retail stores,” according to Gibson’s legal team.
Gibson said in the lawsuit that he retreated to his truck to avoid drawing attention and asked his two employees to use his credit card to pay for the purchase.
He claimed that the cashier ‘offered no logical justification other than repeating store policy and [demanding] to see a form of identification’ when she refused to complete the transaction.
Gibson claimed that the manager would not speak with him and that the transaction was only completed after a dispute with the cashier.
He claimed in court documents that racial prejudice was the only “plausible explanation” for the plaintiffs’ mistreatment.
The employees involved in the incident, according to Gibson’s attorneys, “purposefully interfered with and refused to process the transaction based on their groundless suspicion of Gibson, Mora, and Hernandez arising from their skin colour, and in the case of Mora and Hernandez, their national origin,” according to the lawsuit.
Gibson was seen in a contentious conversation with employees at the home improvement retailer in a viral video of the confrontation.
Gibson reprimanded a woman in the video, saying, “You’re being a racist, and that’s the truth.” “And you’ve got that racist energy all over you because you’re not even willing to apologise, fix it, and point out the inconsistent nature of the policies,” she continued.
In court papers seen by People, Gibson’s legal team claimed that Home Depot had’refused to take any responsibility’ for the incident and had instead ‘doubled down, lawyered-up, and treated Gibson, Mora, and Hernandez and what happened to them as not worthy of any due consideration — instead inferring that they are the problem.’
Home Depot’s spokesperson said in a statement to individuals that “discrimination in any form is not tolerated.” Diversity and respect for all individuals are fundamental elements of who we are.
We regard Mr. Gibson as a customer, and in the months since this incident, we have contacted him and his lawyers multiple times in an effort to assuage their worries. We’ll keep doing that.
