Tyrese Gibson, an American actor, has filed a $1 million complaint alleging racial discrimination and profiling during a February 11 visit to a West Hills, California Home Depot shop.
The Fast and Furious actor, 44, filed court filings in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, claiming that an event at the store violated his and two construction workers’ civil rights.
According to court documents, Gibson’s two employees, Eric Mora and Manual Hernandez, are also identified as plaintiffs in the action.
In the case, the Watts, Los Angeles native also says the corporation violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and was negligent in its recruiting, supervision, and retention of employees. He is also demanding punitive damages.
According to Gibson’s legal petition, the $1 million is for compensatory damages based on how much he estimates he has spent at the home improvement business over the years.
Gibson’s attorneys stated that the artist “firsthand experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling inside the Home Depot retail store in West Hills.”
It continued: ‘The company needs to understand that there are consequences for discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling.’
Gibson’s legal team stated that he and the plaintiffs are ‘dedicated to doing their share to advance civil rights and put an end to the terrible practice of discriminatory maltreatment and consumer racial profiling at Home Depot, and, by extension, all retail establishments.’
Gibson stated in the suit that he did not want to draw attention to himself and proceeded to his vehicle, having his two workers pay for the item with his credit card.
The cashier, he claimed, refused to process the transaction and ‘offered no acceptable explanation other than repeating store policy and [demanding] to see a form of identity.’
Gibson stated that the purchase was finally completed after an argument with the cashier, and that the manager refused to deal with him.
He said in court docs that ‘there is no other plausible explanation for the mistreatment of plaintiffs’ besides racial discrimination.
In the suit, Gibson’s lawyers said that the employees involved in the incident ‘purposely interfered with and refused to process the transaction based on their groundless suspicion of Gibson, Mora and Hernandez arising from their skin color, and in the case of Mora and Hernandez, their national origin.’
In a viral video of the altercation, Gibson was seen in a tense discussion with staffers at the home improvement retailer.
‘You’re being a racist – and that’s the truth,’ Gibson told a woman in the clip. ‘And you’ve got that racist energy all over you because you’re not even willing to apologize, fix it, and point out the inconsistencies of … what the policies are.’
Gibson’s team said in legal docs reviewed by People that Home Depot had ‘refused to take any responsibility’ over the incident, and instead, they had ‘doubled down, lawyered-up, and treated Gibson, Mora, and Hernandez and what happened to them as not worthy of any due consideration – instead inferring that they are the problem.’
A rep for Home Depot told People in a statement, ‘Diversity and respect for all people are core to who we are, and we do not tolerate discrimination in any form.
‘We value Mr. Gibson as a customer, and in the months since this happened, we’ve reached out to him and his attorneys several times to try to resolve his concerns. We will continue to do so.’