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Lawsuit Against Revlon Accuses CEO of Saying He Can ‘Smell’ Black People When They Walk Into the Room

revlon-ceo-lorenzo-delpani-racist-lawsuitA new lawsuit against Revlon is accusing the company of wrongfully terminating a former chief scientist back in December, exposing alleged racist remarks by the company CEO, Lorenzo Delpani.

Less than 48 hours into the New Year, a serious contender for the Most Racist Moments of 2015 has already emerged.

Alan Meyers, a 56-year-old former chief scientific officer at Revlon, recently filed the lawsuit and accused Delpani of making extremely offensive, racist remarks.

According to Meyers’ lawsuit, obtained by the NY Post, Delpani returned from a meeting in South Africa and claimed he could “smell a Black person when he entered a room.”

He also took aim at the Jewish community and claimed he was surprised the company didn’t have more Jewish employees because Ron Perelman, a prominent Jewish businessman, is one of the company’s biggest shareholders.

“Jews stick together,” he allegedly told Meyers before explaining he was happy that Perelman “is not like that anymore.”

Delpani also allegedly claimed he wasn’t fond of America and couldn’t wait to “get back to a real country.”

Meyers made the claims after he says he was wrongfully terminated for speaking up about “safety issues in the production and manufacturing process,” the NY Post reported.

Revlon acquired a Spanish beauty care company back in 2013 and Meyers expressed some concerns about the new labs shortly after the acquisition.

Since then, he claims, Delpani had it out for him.

At one point, the lawsuit claims that Delpani forced Meyers to hold a whiteboard for nearly half an hour during a meeting.

Racist business owners

Left to right: Ron Perelman, Olivia Wilde, Lorenzo Delpani

The former Revlon employee says all the stress from dealing with Delpani has caused serious health issues and forced him to spend some time in the hospital due to chest pains.

Meyers, who is Jewish and American-born, is seeking unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.

During a time when the Black community has been particularly proactive about tackling racism, the claims could prove to be detrimental to the company.

Revlon has responded to the lawsuit and promises to “aggressively fight these baseless claims and this frivolous action,” the company said in a statement to the Gazette.

The company insists that Meyers was fired because he was unable to keep up with the “high standard” Revlon demands of its employees.

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