From yesterday's decision by Judge Jamal Whitehead (W.D. Wash.) in Diemert v. City of Seattle:
This is an employment case, in which Plaintiff Joshua Diemert alleges that Defendant City of Seattle, his former employer, discriminated against him and subjected him to a racially hostile-work environment because he is white. Diemert alleges the City retaliated against him when he complained about the way that he was treated, and that when he could no longer take it, he was forced to resign….
The Court accepts all facts as true from the complaint and construes them in the light most favorable to Diemert [as is required in considering a motion to dismiss]….
Diemert began working as a program intake representative for the City of Seattle, Human Services Department ("HSD") in January 2013. Although he does not describe his racial background in the complaint, Diemert alleges the City classified him as white. He claims his race became an "albatross around his neck" as a "deliberate outgrowth of the City's Race and Social Justice Initiative ('RSJI')." In effect since 2005, RSJI is a city-wide program that requires race-based thinking and decision-making, which "is based on the foundational premise that American society has 'internalized and normalized' culture and practices that are 'rooted in white supremacy, colonialism, classism, Christian hegemony, sexism, heterosexism, physical ableism, [and] mental health oppression[.]"
Diemert attended mandatory RSJI trainings. He alleges RSJI applied differently to City employees depending on their racial identity, and that it divided employes into two groups: "Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)," on the one hand, and "white folks," on the other. Diemert alleges he experienced severe discrimination and harassment because of the City's pervasive focus on race and "supposed 'white supremacy,'" and that he was consistently treated worse than his BIPOC colleagues.
