Missouri man sues Papa John’s for race discrimination
Click here for updates on this story
St. Ann, Missouri (KMOV) — A St. Ann man is suing the city’s Papa John’s Pizza after experiencing what he calls employment discrimination and getting fired after filing complaints.
George Mitchell said racist remarks were common when he worked at the Papa John’s and were so frequent he decided to hit the record button as evidence. “It started getting worse and worse. Him yelling at people, jumping in people’s faces and I finally reached out to the district office manager,” he said.
Mitchell told News 4 he took his concerns to corporate and “the district manager came back and started biting my head off.” Mitchell said they fired him after his complaints.
“He said, ‘I’m tired of Black guys taking our women.’ It was just an uneasy feeling every day,” Mitchell said. From there, he filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and they told him he had grounds to sue. The Missouri Commission on Human Rights is also investigating the St. Ann Papa John’s.
The lawsuit Mitchell filed paints a picture of Black employees receiving unwarranted conversations about white supremacy from their manager. “I want them to take accountability. I want a dialogue,” Mitchell said. “I want something in place to prevent this from happening again.”
Papa John’s sent this statement in response: “We take all allegations of discrimination very seriously, but as a matter of practice we do not comment on legal matters.”
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
