Elon Musk might be doing his best to help humanity's future with his Tesla car manufacturers, but the African-American demographic of his workforce seems to be having problems with his company. Apparently, this is primarily due to how the company's supervisors discriminate and even insult black workers.
Musk, Tesla's CEO, has since responded to the racial issue within his enterprise, being quoted by his own complaining employee after a complaint was sent to him personally. This response from Musk took place back on May 31 but only surface today since the affected employees took it to heart.
"Part of not being a huge jerk is considering how someone might feel who is part of [a] historically less represented group. Sometimes these things happen unintentionally, in which case you should apologize. In fairness, if someone is a jerk to you, but sincerely apologizes, it is important to be thick-skinned and accept that apology," said Musk in the response email he sent.
Larry Organ, attorney at the California Civil Rights Law Group, on behalf of Marcus Vaughn, the Tesla employee who filed the racism complaint, has stated that this response was not enough. Musk compelling his non-white employees to simply accept an apology is allegedly counter-productive to political-correctness according to Organ. He added that Musk should ensure that all of his employees, regardless of skin color, must feel welcome and should have equal rights when working for Tesla.
Organ also added that the there is no statement in the law which says being "thick-skinned" is required to be able to work with people with a different racial background. Website Jalopnik has also criticized Musk's wording of the "unintentional" racist action or remark, implying that there is no such thing as an accidental or unintended racism.
Vaughn, the employee who represented the affected population of Tesla workforce is now currently seeking legal action against Tesla since he was also terminated last October for "not having a positive attitude" after he filed a complaint to the human resources department of the company. Vaugh has also stated that the company was rife with racism, with other employees frequently using the N-word around him and other black employees.
Tesla, as well as Musk, has yet to comment on the issue. A lawsuit, however, is underway.
