Tesla Faces New Racial Discrimination Lawsuit For Firing Black Woman Who Refused To Fire A Latina Employee

Another day, another racial discrimination lawsuit against Tesla.

An exclusive report from Silicon Valley shows Tesla’s Fremont electric car factory has been hit with another lawsuit, this time by a former Black human resources manager, Karen Draper, claiming she was fired after she refused to illegally terminate a Latina worker allegedly targeted by a white manager.

Starting her position in February 2022, Draper said things began to unravel seven months later when a Latina female production supervisor received clearance to go on medical leave, and a manager went on a mission to get the woman fired while on leave. Not named in the lawsuit, the manager allegedly didn’t like the supervisor “because of her Latina ethnicity and female gender,” according to the lawsuit filed in a San Francisco U.S. District Court.

When Draper pushed back on granting the termination and spoke up about “race-based animus and bias against Black women” at Tesla, she was fired.

Tesla’s alleged racial bias culture has been highlighted for several years with numerous discrimination lawsuits and losses against them. Last month, the company was ordered to pay over $3 million to a former Black employee after being accused of ignoring racial abuse at the same California factory, reported by Black Enterprise. Owen Diaz claimed he was subjected to numerous racist offenses between 2015 and 2016. During his employment, a supervisor and other Tesla workers continuously used racial slurs, referencing him. Employees used racial epithets and drew racist symbols and caricatures around the factory.

Tesla called a lawsuit filed last year “misguided” and “unfair” after a civil rights regulator accused the company of paying Black workers less than white workers, denying Black employees of advancements, and daily racist abuse, including a noose drawn in a bathroom next to a reference to lynching and a racial slur.