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Onetime creative designer at Hanesbrand, Yunusa Kenchi, was fired after he faced consistent insults and ridicule from hostile supervisors.

STORY: What In The?!?! Hanes Employee Fired For Being Black?

Yunusa discovered an email sent by his direct supervisor to a higher-ranking supervisor, referring to him with his name as the subject, stating: 

“We should go forward with getting this ni**er out of here and getting [a white employee who had left] back.”

Three days after the email was intercepted, Kenchi was fired. 

After his termination, Yunusa filed against HANES and after a few years in Federal court, settled out of court to retain the right to speak about what happened to him publicly in hopes to help other fight against racism in the workplace.

Yunusa has decided to talk with GlobalGrind about the ordeal and share his thoughts about racism in corporate America and how more work needs to be done to stop it.

GlobalGrind: Just to start off, how did you stumble upon the email?

Yunusa: The day before I discovered the email, my supervisor called for technical support – The IT person comes up and we’re making small talk. He’s done with my supervisor’s computer, then emails start loading on the screen and I see a subject with my name on it, so I read it.

I see what it says and at that very moment I caught a chill and it felt like time stood still. This moment confirmed all my years of suspicion at the company. My supervisor and my supervisor’s boss are racist and I am being set up to be fired. 

When I saw it, I said to myself, ‘It was never intended for me to succeed with this company.’ It was a surreal experience. 

I forwarded that email to my personal email and after seeing that email, I knew my employment at HANES/CHAMPION was over. It didn’t matter what I did or how hard I worked, they didn’t want me there.

In a deposition my former supervisor’s superior admitted to deleting the email that was sent to her calling me a ‘nigger’ she told my direct supervisor to delete the email and they would pretend like it never happened. She still employed at CHAMPION.

Before discovering that email, what was the work atmosphere like?

It was very hostile; the higher ups made it hard to work. I was over-shadowed by my assistant and it had nothing to do with talent. It had to do with race. ‘He was white,’ so he was favored and this became evident before I was forced out.

When you’re working in a creative environment, it’s always going to be competitive. For a moment I thought, “Maybe he’s just that good and I have to refocus and work harder. I have to step it up.” I don’t quit so I wasn’t about to give up. For a while, I thought, ‘Ok maybe he’s better than I thought he was.’ I gave myself every other excuse other than it being a race issue but I always felt like there was something obviously wrong.

We’d be in meetings and when he, (my assistant) talked and he would have everyone’s full attention, when I talked, everybody would get on their Blackberrys, have side conversations or do both it was like I wasn’t even in the room. There were a number of discourtesies that constantly happened. 

Was this from the beginning or it did it gradually happen over time? What was the first moment you realized this environment was toxic?

I can’t point my finger on the exact date that it started, but my suspicion grew overtime.

I wasn’t sure if it’s was in my head, or if it was really happening. I never took an accusatory tone with anyone disputing the way I was treated. I just continued to work harder and harder.

But then there were things that became too blatant. I was reviewing my collection with my supervisors and my supervisor’s superior.

They were looking for a sample, a black gym short and my direct supervisor asked, ‘Does anyone knows where the black short is?’ Her Supervisor grabbed my hand, raised it and said, ‘The black one is here.’ They laughed and I pulled my hand away in protest like, ‘Get the fuck off of me.’

I thought it but didn’t say it. That would have been one of the “when keeping it real goes wrong” moments. It was a supposed “corporate environment” and I wasn’t going to give anyone a reason to look at me as the “Angry black guy.” 

To the supervisors it was all good, something comical. 

There was an instance involving a freelancer. From what he told me, he was given directions to go the copier in the office, and again my supervisor’s superior told him to take a right at the black guy.

He walks over and he says, “I guess you’re the black guy” – I’m assuming I had a hint of anger in my voice and I asked, “What did you just say???!!” He quickly said, ‘That’s what she (the supervisors) told me, take a right at the black guy.” I walked over to my supervisors, superior and said, ‘I’ve got a name, don’t call me the black guy.’

She just kind of shrugged it off and smirked. 

Truth is, everyone including the CEO knew about the case, everyone that was subpoenaed from the case admitted guilt to some degree and knew what was going on but they still have their jobs, why they haven’t get fired is beyond me. I think everyone involved should be let go, the company is harboring racists. 

HANES who owns CHAMPION released three separate adds in 2008 (while I was still employed there)  each using the following words NIGGER, FAGGOT and PAKI – I’ve seen the ads and you can find them online.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions but there’s something called social responsibility….you say these things in your ads it speaks about the corporate culture. I can only image what was said in the approval meeting about these ads.

A person would have to be brain dead to think this wouldn’t offend anyone anywhere.

As a practicing Muslim, did they say anything about your religion? 

We had a room on the 7th or 8th floor, and sometimes my supervisor saw me praying. Around that time, Islamophobia was on the rise and all over the news.

That could have played a factor but I don’t know, nothing was blatantly said. It could have been a combination of the two, but God knows best.

The case has been settled and according to your lawyer, more people are coming forward from Hanes/Champion and other companies. Where do you go from here?

The reason I settled out of court was because I wanted to retain the right to speak about the case. Hopefully, this won’t happen to anyone else at that company.

Could I have won a few million dollars from this? I’m not a lawyer but all the evidence that was dug up by the Boyd Law Group llc, from HANES/CHAMPION over the past few years suggested that I would have won a few million dollars from the case but the usual practice is you would have to sign a gag order or not speak about what happened ever.

It turned my stomach at the thought of giving up my right to speak about this and not try and help put an end to race discrimination.

Designers work too hard and put in way too many hours to get treated this way. It was racist, it was corporate bullying and nobody should have to be subjected to it. 

This was my chance. Dignity over money. My silence couldn’t be bought because “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – MLK Jr.

Do you see something like this happening again at Hanes?

I hope not, but you never know. They still have some of the same people we took to federal court and who were involved in the case working at that New York office so only time can tell if this will happen again….it’s really hard to change the stripes on a Zebra. 

But if it does happen to someone else….say at another company the questions always remain, Do you confront your supervisors and risk losing your job?

Considering that Michael Jordan is one of the faces of Hanes, it was weird to us while we were reading it. 

Yeah, I know what you mean. I doubt MJ would be OK with being called a “Ni**er” or maybe he just doesn’t know … but I should bring it to his attention, he should know who he’s dealing with.

What are you doing now?

I’m at another company still designing – I still love what I do, thanks for asking. But for now, I want to make the story public, just so anyone facing any kind of discrimination, whether it is race, religion or gender, whatever they’re going through, they should know they can speak about it.

We want to thank you for taking the time to talk to us. We’re definitely going to spread the word on this and get it out there. People need to know what’s going on. Thank you.

Thank you for your time and support. I also want to thank the Boyd Law Group PLLC for their help in this case and also Henry Edo for his clear insight and guidance.