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In a week that has been heavy with a racial overtone following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, it’s hard to read stories like this one, but very necessary. 

According to The New York Post, A former Alexander McQueen security guard is accusing two of the brand’s retail employees of such severe and horrifying racial harassment that it almost drove him to suicide. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. 

The African security guard, who is filing suit against the company, claims that he was subjected to such demeaning racism that he (scarily) harbored thoughts of murdering the sales associates that taunted him and then himself. 

22-year-old Othman Ibela, who is a native of the Central African nation Gabon, says the high-end shop’s clerk, Kimberly Mahnke, “repeatedly made jokes about me running nude in Africa with a spear in my hand.”

The New York Post reports:

Mahnke also allegedly told him President Obama and his wife and two children would be kicked out of the White House and “sent back to Africa” after the 2012 elections.

Shop manager Catherine Flynn repeatedly asked him “why Muslims were always killing people” and joked about his accent, saying he sounded like he was speaking Swahili, an East African language that is not used in Ibela’s homeland, according to the complaint.

He also claims that his alleged tormentors ignored black customers, often turning their backs when they entered the showroom…except for when the black people were the likes of Beyonce. According to Othman, the only time the workers would pay attention to black shoppers is when they were celebrities, saying, “when Beyoncé came in, everyone wanted to help.”

He continued explaining the occurrences, leading to a troubling statement:

“They attacked me again and again,” Ibela told The Post. “I wanted to kill them and kill myself. Then everybody would be a loser.”

When he asked to be reassigned, his pay was docked and his hours were cut, and he finally quit in January.

Othman has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit against the company, and if his allegations are proved valid, we hope he gets the justice he deserves. 

The takeaway from this? Jokes to you may be suicide notes to someone else. 

SOURCE: The New York Post