'Kill Black people': Elon Musk's Tesla sued for racial abuse at electric vehicle plant

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker Tesla for a pervasive pattern of racial abuse at one of its manufacturing plants and for retaliating against Black employees who complained about the stereotyping, hostility and slurs.

According to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Oakland Thursday, Black employees at Tesla’s Fremont, California facility were routinely subjected to graffiti, swastikas, threats such as “‘kill black people,” and nooses on desks and other equipment, in bathroom stalls, in elevators and on new vehicles on the production line since 2015, the EEOC alleged.

Black employees described racist imagery as “frequent,” “constant,” “a regular thing,” and occurring “too many times to count,” the lawsuit alleged.

Employees who objected to the racial hostility were terminated, transferred or had their job duties changed, according to the lawsuit.

“Despite having actual or constructive knowledge of racial harassment and misconduct, Tesla failed and refused to take steps to address the behavior. Tesla failed to investigate complaints of racial misconduct. Tesla failed to adopt policies or practices to ensure that its temporary workforce did not perpetrate racial harassment at the Fremont Factory,” the EEOC lawsuit charged.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The EEOC, which is charged with protecting the civil rights of Americans in the workplace, said it investigated Tesla after Chair Charlotte Burrows filed a commissioner’s charge alleging that Tesla violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by subjecting Black employees to an unlawful hostile work environment and retaliating against employees for opposing harassment. 

Tesla revealed in April 2022 that it was being investigated by the EEOC.

A separate lawsuit brought by California’s civil rights agency also accuses the company of ignoring pervasive racism against Black workers in Fremont and in other facilities.

In April, a federal jury in San Francisco ordered Tesla to pay about $3.2 million to a Black former employee after he won a racial harassment lawsuit. The award was far less than the $15 million he rejected when he asked for a new trial last year.