Andre Wong said laser tech giant Lumentum in San Jose has a bias that hurt him personally and professionally.
Wong spent 20 years at Lumentum and, according to his lawsuit, helped create and develop a product line combining 3D and facial recognition that generated about $1 billion in revenue. But Wong said from that point he was layered under mainly white managers. "I would be training my new managers and oddly my managers would be usually not from the industry or not familiar with that business," he said."That’s why I had to do all the training."Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Wong said his treatment was often demeaning, including a one-on-one conversation with a senior executive. "Rather than responding to what I was talking about, he just said, 'Andre, you’re mispronouncing program. You weren’t enunciating your 'r,'" Wong said."I was shocked. Number one, I’m a native English speaker and I’ve never been told that I have any pronunciation problems. Secondly, there was so many other things to talk about."