A staffing agency in Chicago is being accused of discrimination after one of its agents left an accidental but derogatory voicemail on a Black woman’s phone alleging she was white.
Ashley Chapman said she got that message from the very agency she recruited help from to search for a job in the Chicago area.
Chapman, a Chicago native, said she moved back to the city with her kids after living in North Dakota for some time and sought help from the office in suburban Elgin.
“I don’t have a lot of family to help me,” the single mother of two daughters said at a news conference in June. “I need a job. I need money for my kids.”
After missing a call from the agency, an employee left her a voicemail but forgot to hang up.
One employee is heard talking with a colleague, unaware that a message is still being recorded on Chapman’s phone.
“Let’s see what Ashley Newman looks like,” one person is heard saying. “I don’t think she’s Black … I think she’s white … Yeah, I think she’s white trash.”
In another comment, someone said, “Your baby daddy’s married, and that means you’ve had some unprotected sex.”
Despite the offensive message, Chapman still called the agency back to seek help finding a job.
“People make mistakes, but they just took it too far,” Chapman said.
She later sought legal representation to start the process of filing a discrimination complaint against the company.
“It was a repulsive message and in cases like this, you don’t find out about why decisions were made,” Chapman’s attorney David Fish said. “Usually, people aren’t stupid enough to leave a voicemail like this.”
Fish filed a charge of discrimination with the Illinois Department of Human Rights to begin the proceedings for an official civil complaint.
“What we’ve alleged in our charge of discrimination is that there’s marital status discrimination, that there’s gender discrimination, and that there’s race discrimination,” Fish said, adding that he and Chapman have called for the company to be investigated.
IHDR is the state agency responsible for enforcing the Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the bases of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, military status, age (40 and over), order of protection status, marital status, sexual orientation (which includes gender-related identity), unfavorable military discharge, and physical and mental disability.
The department reviews requests for charges alleging unlawful discrimination concerning employment, housing, financial credit, and public accommodations, then investigates the case and files a formal civil complaint if substantial evidence of discrimination is found.
Atlanta Black Star has reached out to IHDR for an update on whether a complaint has been officially filed in Chapman’s case.
