Is Hanes guilty of racism? Someone thinks so. A racial discrimination lawsuit against Hanesbrands (makers of Michael Jordan’s undies-of-note, Playtex, and Champion, among others) has been filed in New York on behalf of Yunusa Kenchi after his termination from his role as creative designer at the company. Kenchi, who is African American and Muslim, allegedly faced “consistent insults and ridicule from a hostile supervisor,” in a company in which “racial improprieties abound.”
According to his lawyer, Patrick Boyd of the Boyd Law Group, “At one point at the office, before Kenchi’s firing, the employees were all looking for some black gym shorts. His supervisor raised Kenchi’s hand and said, ‘I’ve got the black one, here.’ This was consistent with what Kenchi thought was a predominantly hostile work environment. Other African Americans there were saying yes, this is going on.”
Then Kenchi discovered an email sent by his direct supervisor to a higher-ranking supervisor computer referring to him (with his name as the subject line) stating, “We should go forward with getting this [n-word] out of here and getting [a white employee who had left] back.”
According to the complaint, Kenchi was told by another supervisor that his direct supervisor was biased against him because of his race. He’d also “observed from early on that his supervisors viewed him only as a minority quota-filler.”
