A car dealership that had to shell out a $10 million settlement for overcharging its Black customers faces a new racial discrimination lawsuit from one of its former employees.
Attorneys for Andre Jennings filed the suit last September against Ed Napleton Elmhurst Imports Inc., an automotive dealer headquartered in Illinois.
The complaint states that Jennings, a Black man, worked at one of the company’s dealerships called Napleton’s Kia of Elmhurst, where he and his Black colleagues were “subjected to an ongoing, racially hostile culture where frequent racial slurs, comments, stereotypes, and jokes saturated the workplace.”
The harassment against Jennings started in April 2019, according to the suit, and was carried out by the dealership’s white managers almost daily.
One of those managers would “casually and openly” call Jennings and his Black colleagues the N-word and in several instances where Jennings would make a sale, that same manager would say, “Take this deal back to finance, my n****r,” the complaint states.
“He was repeatedly using the N-word and called me ‘my n***a,'” Jennings said of his former white supervisor. “I’m talking about repeated occurrences. He thought it was friendly. He even joked about it, used the word ‘shines.’ It just got uncomfortable,” he told Atlanta Black Star.
The suit also alleges that when Black customers voiced dissatisfaction with deals, Jennings’ supervisor would tell him to “go calm your people down” or tell him, “You know how to handle your own kind.” He would refer to Black people as “the blacks” and claimed they were “not as educated as white people.”
White supervisors and colleagues would also often “joke” and make references to “fried chicken” or other harmful tropes and stereotypes directed at Black people.
In addition to the harassment, Jennings claims he and his Black colleagues were subjected to “excessive scrutiny” and “discriminatory treatment” if they committed so-called “infractions” that their white counterparts were never penalized for doing, like parking in certain spaces and leaving work early. The suit cited one incident where a white employee was caught smoking marijuana in an unsold car and was never disciplined for it.
The dealership even purposely withheld commissions from its Black employees, who were paid less than their white colleagues, the complaint alleges. Jennings told Atlanta Black Star he saw several Black salespeople quit the company because they weren’t paid what they were owed.
“Multiple Black salespeople have left this company because of commissions. They’re not getting fired. They’re leaving because they would do a deal, get the commission, find out what they got paid, and be like, ‘The hell with this, I’m leaving.’ And this is a repeated, ongoing situation,” Jennings explained.
Jennings was also denied opportunities for advancement on several occasions, even though he has more than 25 years of experience. Yet, his former supervisors would hire other white individuals with little industry experience and directly place them in management positions.
“They hired their friends’ kids to work at the dealership,” Jennings told Atlanta Black Star. “There’s a kid there right now who was put in a management position that’s only been in the business a year.
The harassment against Jennings continued for more than three years until he was fired from his job in November 2022 for reporting his co-worker for violating company policy, the complaint states.
He said he endured that toxic environment because he was the sole provider of his family and wanted to maintain his salary to make ends meet. It felt difficult to speak out, knowing he had to continue to support his family.
“You coming to work with a cloud over your shoulder because you really don’t want to be here. Everything built up like a pressure in a pipe,” Jennings said.
After he was fired, he lost his home. He, his fiancee, and his five-year-old daughter now live in a homeless shelter. However, they’re set to move into a two-bedroom home thanks to the work of a local charity.
“We brought this lawsuit under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We are in 2024 and this is still a huge problem,” Jennings’ attorney Chiquita Hall-Jackson said. “Discrimination in the workplace is something that’s ultimately brushed under the rug because a lot of people feel like they have to endure that treatment in order to feed their families. Ultimately, we’re not disrupting things, we’re just playing along to get along and it’s doing nothing for our future children who have to enter the workforce after us.”
Jennings’ suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the emotional distress, retaliation, disparate treatment, and hostile work environment he suffered.
The Federal Trade Commission and the State of Illinois already ordered Ed Napleton Automotive to pay $10 million in April 2022 for discriminating against its Black customers and sneaking illegal junk fees onto their bills.
At the time the settlement was announced, Jennings was suspended from work for “parking in the wrong parking space,” according to his complaint. His managers called him back to work almost immediately after the news broke, which Jennings feels was a “charade” to show the public the dealership had Black employees.
Other Black individuals who have worked at that same dealership have reached out to Attorney Hall-Jackson seeking to file lawsuits and share their discriminatory workplace experiences.
“We’ve had additional employees reach out since Mr. Jennings’ case has been filed. It just goes to show that (that company) has a pattern of total disregard for the Black community,” Attorney Hall-Jackson stated. “What I think would be adequate here is punitive damages and clearly some injunctive relief that would require these individuals for some sensitivity training, diversity training, or a complete shutdown.”
