Thread by @guang_lie

In 2007, Black U.S. chattel slavery descendants (African Americans/ BAs) won an EEOC “same race” suit against an Ethiopian-owned company in Houston that discriminated against BAs in favor of native African drivers. Black ethnic specificity is already understood — federally…

In the EEOC complaint, Andrew Cooper — a black American working for Ethio Express reveals how he was told by Ethio Express management that,

"you blacks are happy as long as whites give you food stamps."

Cooper explains how Black American drivers “would be dispatched on ‘ghost trips,’ in which a driver would arrive at a destination to find no passenger waiting, while routes with paying passengers were assigned to drivers of Ethiopian origin.”

#PanAfricanism 🥴

When the inferior driving routes assigned to BAs experienced large increases in passenger volume like during the Super Bowl week in 2004, the Ethiopian bosses snatched the routes away from the BAs, giving them to Ethiopians so that they could get those passenger tips.😒

Now, shortly after answering the complaint, the Ethiopian-owned company filed for bankruptcy, placing it under the protection of an automatic stay in Bankruptcy Court. 😒

Fortunately, the EEOC reopened this case after the legally required waiting time after a Bankruptcy Court ruling has passed and secured a default settlement of $37,197, enjoining (prohibiting) the Ethio Express owners from discriminating on the basis of race or national origin.🎉

Links to court documents used in this thread can be found here: clearinghouse.net/case/8153/

Finally, it’s important to note that this case is regarded as one of the EEOC’s significant “same race discrimination ” cases.

Link: eeoc.gov/initiatives/e-…