Nicholas Drayton-Hamilton worked for two years at a Capital One branch in Rockaway Park, N.Y., and says customers called him a gorilla, used racial slurs including the N-word, and told him he didn’t belong there because he’s black.
When these things would happen, I would report it, ” Hamilton told Bloomberg Law, but nothing was ever done. ” Hamilton was fired, he said, after one customer visited the branch three times in one week, escalating his verbal racial attacks, until Hamilton stepped outside to stop the behavior.
He sued Capital One late last month, alleging that he was racially harassed by customers, and his branch manager and the bank did nothing to stop it.
Hamilton’s account of harassment by a customer is just one of many popping up in federal discrimination lawsuits throughout the country, as workers in industries ranging from banking and retail to restaurants and nursing homes challenge the oft-repeated motto of the customer is always right. “