“Why do all Black people call each other ‘ni—er’?”
That is the jarring question Christina Cahill says she faced from a white co-worker at Rensselaer Honda in Troy, New York, two years ago. At that point she’d been in her position as a service advisor at the dealership for six months.
“Excuse me?” said Cahill, who is Black. When her co-worker, Ehren Moppert, repeated the question, she allegedly replied, “First of all, you shouldn’t say that to a Black person. It is very offensive. I do not use that language. Have you ever heard me say that word? All Black people do NOT speak that way.”
According to her federal civil rights lawsuit filed on Aug. 29 and obtained by Atlanta Black Star, the N-word was among a barrage of racist comments repeatedly uttered by her white colleagues at Honda that she endured until she quit in November 2023, feeling degraded and humiliated.
Cahill says she had high hopes for building a long career at Honda when she took the job with a modest $36,400 base salary in November 2022. But she soon realized the work environment at the dealership was rife with racial bias and discrimination.
The car dealer’s customer base included many brown-skinned people of Middle Eastern descent, the complaint says, and Cahill often overheard other service advisers (the staff who interface between customers and car technicians) disparaging them with comments such as:
“Oh, no. Here comes another sand ni—er,” and “I wish they wouldn’t come here.”
Several white members of the service staff would leave the service area when non-white customers approached to avoid serving them, or treated them with less respect than white customers, Cahill claims, all under the watchful eye of supervisor Blake Race, who witnessed but never addressed the discriminatory conduct.
By May, when Moppert allegedly asked her why all Black people call each other ‘ni—er,’ Cahill says she was exasperated. She went to the office of service manager Tom Sinkora, where human resources manager Rory Guilfoyle was also present. She told both men, who are white, about her colleague’s open use of the N-word, which she found offensive.
Sinkora promised her he would speak to Moppert about his inappropriate racist comments, but never did, the lawsuit says.
Then on a busy service day in June 2023 with many cars in the shop that had to be moved around, Cahill says Moppert recklessly sped past her in a car, cutting her off. When she parked a customer’s car and returned to the service shop, she heard Moppert say, “If you’re going to act like that, you can pull your own f—ing cars around!”
“Who are you talking to?” she says she asked.
“Your black ass!” he allegedly replied, igniting a verbal altercation between the two in the mechanic shop, witnessed by several technicians.
Sinkora heard the shouting and came out of his office to investigate, and after hearing Cahill’s side of things, told her to report it to Guilfoyle. She did so but was disappointed to see that he later wrote up the incident as a warning letter to Cahill that described it as a “disagreement” and did not include the racial comments allegedly made by Moppert.
When Cahill told her supervisor that the letter was not accurate, he told her not to worry about it, she says. In an attempt to resolve the situation and move forward, she signed it.
A month later, still distraught by the “overt racist environment,” and also upset about unfair scheduling practices that she says gave her fewer hours and less lucrative service assignments than her white co-workers, Cahill told her manager she was resigning.
Honda’s General Manager Greg Beyer and Sinkora then asked her to stay, she claims, promising a better schedule with more consistent hours and more lucrative assignments. (Service advisers work on commission, earning more based on the parts and services they sell). On that basis she agreed to keep working there, she says, but the scheduling issues were never addressed.
Then came the monkey.
In September 2023 Cahill noticed a stuffed monkey hanging from a lighting fixture in the service area, the complaint says. Over the next few months the monkey was moved around the shop, landing on a tire rack, a desk, and dangling from other light fixtures. No one took responsibility for bringing it, she says, but managers were aware of the monkey’s presence, and she says she complained to management that she found it offensive multiple times. No one removed it.
On November 30, 2023, Cahill arrived at work and overheard her white co-workers Jason Foster and Scott Valet discussing rap songs. Seeing Cahill, Foster allegedly said, “Hey, Chris, what am I supposed to do when a rap song comes on and the word ‘ni—er’ comes up?”
“Whoa!” You should not say that word when you are in the presence of a Black person. It is highly offensive,” Cahill says she responded.
“So if my favorite song comes on by Drake and I am in my car, can I say it?” Foster allegedly asked.
“If you are alone or in the presence of your own home, feel free to say whatever you want. But you should never say it to a Black person,” Cahill replied.
Cahill says Foster and Valet continued to prolong the racial conversation, which she felt was intended to degrade and humiliate her. Then Foster, dismissing her protests, “put both of his hands up with two fingers extended mimicking guns, pointed at Plaintiff and exclaimed, “Ni—er!” while laughing, she claims.
Offended and hurt, and reduced to tears, Cahill says she packed up her personal belongings and told her manager Sinkora that she’d had her fill of racist comments “by white men in this building.” Then she took her stuff to her car.
She says when she returned to gather more of her belongings, Guilfoyle and Julie Harrison, the office controller, asked to speak with her.
Cahill told them what had transpired with Foster and Valet that morning, as well as recounting past discrimination, including the scheduling and assignment issues that had reduced her income.
Harrison interrupted her, Cahill says, asking her if she was aware that she has biracial children with a Black man.
“Some people say that I am entitled to say the word [ni—er], but I would never say it,” Harrison allegedly said. Then, after an extended silence, Guilfoyle awkwardly launched into a discussion about TV sitcoms featuring Black characters, including “Martin” and “Living Single,” the complaint says.
Bewildered and more upset than she had been going into the impromptu meeting, Cahill says she told her managers that she “just wanted to bow out gracefully.”
They told her to take the day off, and she went home. Once there, she texted another co-worker that Harrison’s racist comment and Guilfoyle’s failure to address her complaints and then diverting the conversation to a discussion of Black sitcoms was “the last straw.” She was done.
Rensselaer Honda constructively discharged Cahill that day, the lawsuit argues, as no reasonable person would have agreed to stay employed in such a hostile environment.
Cahill accuses the dealership of racial discrimination in violation of federal and New York state civil rights laws. She seeks a jury trial to determine compensatory damages for lost wages and benefits, mental, emotional and physical suffering and distress, and injury to her reputation. She also seeks punitive damages.
Rennselaer Honda did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Atlanta Black Star. The company has 21 days to file a response after being served with the lawsuit.
Great Job Jill Jordan Sieder & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
