Black bus driver called ‘Monkey' and 'Blackie' at Jewish School in Brooklyn
theGrio REPORT - According to a new federal lawsuit, the only African-American bus driver at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Brooklyn alleges he was regularly referred to as a “monkey”, a “blackie” and other racial slurs while on the job.
According to a new federal lawsuit, the only African-American bus driver at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Brooklyn alleges he was regularly referred to as a “monkey,” a “blackie” and other racial slurs while on the job.
Willis Baker worked for the United Talmudical Academy of Boro Park Inc. from July to December 2014. Things immediately started off on the wrong foot when Yanke Schaefer, the man who hired him, referred to him as his “monkey friend” in front of other people.
“I just thought to myself, I really got myself into one hell of a pickle here,” Baker says about hearing Schaefer’s casual use of the epithet.
Baker, 56, also claims that while he drove the bus, students would call him “monkey,” “blackie” and “stupid” and would hurl “candy, spit balls, paper and solid hard objects.” But no teachers on the bus would step in to stop them.
Baker alleges he was the only employee told to clean and service buses that were driven by non-African-American drivers — and didn’t get additional pay for the extra work. When he complained about being singled out to do extra work, Schaefer allegedly told him he should “shut up and appreciate the fact that [he had] a job in the first place.”
Schaefer also claimed Baker had caused an accident with an automobile and docked $500 from three paychecks (for a total of $1,500).
Baker maintains in the suit there was never an accident, nor damage to the bus indicative of a collision.
Schaefer denies all the allegations. “I took him in as a driver, so there’s no discrimination,” he says, explaining the school has Hasidic, Russian and African-American drivers in the fleet. “We have an African-American driver who was driving the same time as him who told [Baker] he was unsafe [and] ‘you’ve got to be good.’”
When Newsweek asked Schaefer for accident reports, he deferred further comment to his lawyer. Yet, his legal representatives did not provide them.
The suit, filed recently in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, is suing United Talmudical Academy and Schaefer for $2 million.
A spokeswoman for Jeffery Meyer and Jeffrey Ettenger, counsel for United Talmudical Academy, said in a statement to Newsweek, “Yanke Schaefer and the United Talmudical Academy strongly refute all employment discrimination allegations made by Willis Baker and believes them to be factually and legally unsubstantiated. We intend to vigorously defend this lawsuit.”
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