A Black man is suing U-Haul of Georgia for racial discrimination after allegedly enduring racial slurs and receiving harassing videos of people in blackface from his co-worker at the truck rental company.
In his complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Dec. 18, Tye Cox, who has worked for U-Haul in Acworth, Georgia, since May of 2022, says his co-worker, Jaiden Donaldson, called him the N-word on multiple occasions.
On one such occasion, in May of 2024, Donald allegedly arrived to his shift extremely late and Cox, the assistant manager, told him he “could go home,” seemingly angering Donaldson, who then called him the racial slur in front of several customers.
When Cox complained to his general manager, Rasheed Knibbs, about the incident, Knibbs hung up on Cox, he claims. Cox then called the next highest supervisor, Tom Spencer, who said he would speak with Knibbs about it but added that he would require proof of Donaldson using the “n-word” in front of customers in order to reprimand him. He advised Cox to work the remainder of the day by himself.
Around this time, Cox also received harassing text messages from Donaldson, including “videos from TikTok in which people were in Blackface spouting racial slurs,” the complaint says.
Cox complained about the videos and other racist and harassing conduct to management but “was not taken seriously,” he says and contends that no action was ever taken by management to stop or mitigate the discriminatory conduct and to remedy his hostile working conditions.
His lawsuit claims that U-Haul violated federal civil rights law prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of race by subjecting him to ongoing racial harassment, and also claims retaliation by company management for failing to address his complaints after he reported the racial discrimination.
Cox, who remains employed at U-Haul, seeks a jury trial and a judgment awarding relief, including back pay, front pay, and compensatory damages for injury to his career and reputation, emotional pain and suffering, and mental anguish, as well as legal fees and costs.
His attorney, Christopher Brown, and public relations representatives of U-Haul declined Atlanta Black Star’s requests for comment on the case, citing their policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
