A Black man is taking legal action after claiming that he was harassed and racially discriminated against by his supervisor while working at a California university, leading to him experiencing “panic attacks,” heightened fear, anxiety and other health issues, court documents allege.
The San Francisco State University employee, DeMauriae Vaughn, is suing his former supervisor Karen Rubin and the California State University system, according to a lawsuit that was filed in California Superior Court on Tuesday.
Court documents show Vaughn is seeking damages due to the institution’s failure to protect him from a hostile work environment.
“Ms. Rubin’s repeated race-based harassment of Mr. Vaughn and other non-white SFSU employees would be indefensible anywhere, but especially at an educational institution where diversity, inclusivity, and respect… should be upheld,” Rubin’s attorney Arash Sadat told the San Franciso Standard.
Per the lawsuit, Vaughn started working at the SFSU in 2001 and was promoted during his tenure. In 2016, he became an academic adviser at the school’s Advising Resource Center. Three years later, Rubin, identified as a white woman, became the center’s director in August 2019.
That same month one of Vaughn’s employees informed him that Rubin “referred to him as a runaway slave” due to being absent from work, according to his claim.
Vaughn reported Rubin’s remarks to a professor at the school who alleged that Rubin had a portrait of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee displayed in her office, per the lawsuit. In the months afterward, Vaughn continued to address Rubin’s actions and racist comments directed at her employees, the suit says, but she brushed it off.
The lawsuit also alleges that Rubin began telling Vaughn to check in with her upon arrival to work, but his colleagues were not given that requirement. Vaughan repeatedly tried to report his and his colleagues’ experiences and the “runaway slave” comment, but no action was taken, the complaint claims.
The lawsuit says that Rubin is also accused of touting Confederacy images as “leadership” and declined a request to acknowledge the murder of George Floyd —killed by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer during an arrest — in the center’s newsletter. Instead, the lawsuit states, “she preferred that the newsletter focuses on ‘puppies and other happy things,’ yet she was able to make space for a ‘fun fact’ and iced tea preferences in relation to the Mason-Dixon line.”
