After learning from a genetic test that he has African ancestry, a white police officer in Michigan has sued the mayor, police chief and others alleging he was a victim of racism.
In a lawsuit, Hastings police Sgt. Cleon Brown claims he found out in a test on Ancestry.com that he is 18 percent black and shared the results with co-workers, which led to racist comments and taunts from other officers and city higher-ups, according to WWJ.
Brown alleges other officers said “Black Lives Matter” as he passed by, and he wasn’t taken seriously when he tried to report the incidents.
“As soon as my client told the others, the higher-ups in the city, that he was African-American, they thought it was a joke. ... They treated him as though he was less than them,” Brown’s lawyer, Karie Boylan, told WWJ.
Brown claims that even the city’s mayor at the time made racially charged jokes upon learning of his heritage.
“There was an instance where my client was talking to the mayor, and the mayor — upon learning that my client was 18 percent African-American — proceeded to tell him a racist joke using the (N word),” Boylan told WWJ.
Brown filed a discrimination lawsuit in January, citing a hostile work environment, and is seeking monetary compensation. Boylan also hopes that those responsible for the alleged racism resign.
Read more at WWJ-TV.
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