The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a federal lawsuit against Target Market Enterprises, Inc., which owns nine Little Caesars Pizza locations, after three Black workers had to face racial attacks at the Mount Vernon, Washington, branch of the franchise.
Filed on behalf of Brethny Espinosa and two other Black employees, the federal lawsuit mentions that they were called “slaves” and “darky” and other racial slurs and had to work in a hostile environment where they were constantly harassed because of their race.
Espinosa was hired in August 2024, and her tasks included preparing pizza dough and cleaning up the place. The general manager and the shift lead worked as her supervisor, as the lawsuit mentions. As reported by Atlanta Black Star, “One shift lead identified in the lawsuit as “J.G.” and a crew member “A.G.,” who were both “non-Black,” subjected Espinosa and two Black employees to frequent, offensive, and unwelcome race-based conduct including calling or referring to them as ”the N-Word,” “slaves, “blacky,” “darky,” and “monkey,” the complaint alleges.”
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Moreover, JG allegedly made the Black workers do “the most menial tasks” like cleaning the dishes all day. The lawsuit further mentions that the White General Manager of Little Caesars was well aware of the kind of racist attacks that the Black employees had to face, and yet did not take any proper action. The manager also knew about JG’s repeated use of the N-word and even after he used the word twice in March 2024 “loud enough to be heard by customers,” the general manager only gave him a written warning instead of escalating the issue to the regional manager.
Then, in August 2024, a White co-worker also found JG’s behavior to be extremely bad and complained to the general manager, but with no consequences. In September 2024, another Black employee complained about AG to JG, and yet no action was taken. Instead, AG was promoted to the position of a shift lead by the general manager.
Finally, three days later, on September 30, 2024, when Espinosa complained again about JG and AG’s racist comments to the general manager with no result, she complained to the regional manager, which led to JG finally being fired on the same day.
However, AG continued his racial attacks against one of the Black employees at the Mount Vernon restaurant, and despite repeated complaints about him, the situation did not improve. Getting frustrated, the Black employee wrote a Post-It note that said, “[A.G.] hates Black people” and placed it in “a private area of the restaurant accessible only to employees.”
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However, the move backfired as the Black employee was terminated on grounds of “using inappropriate language,” in a note left on a desk, according to a written warning from the franchisee management issued the day before, as reported by Atlanta Black Star. The lawsuit also charges this termination to be unlawful and based on racial prejudices.
Talking about the lawsuit and the situation that led to its filing, Elizabeth Cannon, director of the EEOC’s Seattle Field Office said, “Federal law requires employers to promptly investigate any incident where an employee has been targeted with slurs based on his or her race, and to take immediate steps to stop such offensive conduct.” She then added, “failure to consider the harasser’s prior use of this highly offensive racial slur in the restaurant is appalling.”
Target Market Enterprises has not yet officially spoken on the matter and has until February 2, 2026, to respond.
