A Metro Vancouver concrete company must pay the price for racial slurs one of its employees used against another, B.C.’s Human Rights Tribunal has ruled.
Martinez Johnson identifies as Mayan and Black. He worked as a carpenter with the company from March to November 2019, during which time he said coworkers called him the Spanish words for “monkey” and “ape”, among other more serious racial slurs. He said on the day he quit, one of those coworkers assaulted him as well.
Pacheco admitted to this, but argued that he had thought Martinez Johnson was only Latino, and therefore couldn’t have meant the remarks in a racist manner. He said he had rather meant that Martinez Johnson was sometimes careless with his work and often expressed “archaic” or “primitive” views about women.
“This stereotype is especially harmful because it has been exploited by Europeans for centuries to justify colonial rule over people deemed as ‘primitive,’ less ‘civilized,’ and therefore less human,” she wrote in herMartinez Johnson testified that the remarks made him feel embarrassed and disrespected. In a text exchange presented as evidence, he compared the name calling to being treated “like a dog.