Harassment Included|KKK Hoods, Man Says

ATLANTA (CN) - A black worker claims Epps Air Services let his former co-workers harass him with "hoods on their heads to resemble KKK uniforms," swastika graffiti, and "pictures or animations of President Obama shining white people's shoes ... placed in plaintiff's work area," and fired him after he complained of it.

Clyde Foreman, an avionics technician for Epps from 2006 to 2009, sued the company for racial discrimination, retaliation and labor code violations, in Federal Court.

Foreman claims the racial harassment began on a business trip to Arizona in September 2008, when a co-worker made racist comments and told racist jokes. Foreman says that after he reported this to his direct supervisor, he "suffered blatant racial discrimination at the hands of his white co-workers."

He says the racial harassment became more blatant toward the end of the 2008 presidential campaign.

"Pictures or animations of President Obama shining white people's shoes were placed in plaintiff's work area," the complaint states.

"Several of plaintiff's co-workers placed makeshift hoods on their heads to resemble KKK uniforms. Swastikas were carved in the men's employee restroom."

Foreman says that three weeks after he told his manager that if his complaints continued to be ignored, he would file a complaint with the EEOC, he was fired.

He seeks lost wages and compensatory and punitive damages. He is represented by Jule S. Northup and Eleanor Mixon Attwood with Barrett & Farahany.

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