California · Tesla · Elon Musk · The Guardian Technology
Black Tesla employees accuse company of fostering racial discrimination in major trial
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Dozens of Black employees at Tesla’s flagship plant in California said they were subject to racist slurs, unequal pay and promotions, and bullying by supervisors daily, a situation management did little to nothing to fix.
Key facts
- In 2022, a federal jury awarded Owen Diaz, a former Tesla employee, $137m for these claims, one of the largest awards given in a discrimination lawsuit brought by a single worker, although a judge
- The first witness worked at Tesla from 2021 to 2024 and said he was repeatedly bullied for being Black
- Nadia Clark, who previously worked as a police officer and an army officer for decades, was employed as a security manager at Tesla’s Fremont facility from 2020 to 2022
- Musk, who joined Tesla in 2004 and became the CEO in 2008, has also been accused of racist behavior, including promoting white supremacist conspiracy theories like “white genocide
Summary
Their complaints form the basis of a lawsuit brought against the Elon Musk-owned electric car company by the state of California, which began trial with opening statements on Monday. Brett Watson, a lawyer for the California Civil Rights Department, started by showing the court a series of photographs taken throughout Tesla’s Fremont factory. Watson listed a long string of racial epithets workers said were directed personally at them, including one incident where a Black worker said he was asked: “You want to hang from a tree?” “Despite what Tesla might argue, you will hear Black workers were deeply offended,” Watson said.