The Democratic candidate for Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, was hit with allegations Wednesday that his campaign discriminated against at least ten black and Latino campaign workers, relegating them into “race-specific positions” and forcing them to toil in unsafe work environments.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that minority employees of Pritzker’s campaign claim in a lawsuit filed earlier this week against Pritzker that they were “herded into race-specific positions” and “received less favorable treatment than their white counterparts” while allegedly enduring “overt and invidious racial discrimination.”
They’re asking for an eye-watering $7.5 million in damages, as well as personal recommendations for each staffer and demanding that the campaign hire a “Chief Diversity Officer,” and mandate sensitivity and inclusion training of all its employees.
Pritzker forcefully denied the claims in an interview with the Sun-Times Wednesday, calling the employees’ allegations “just not true.” His running mate, who is black, called the complaints “baseless” and “offensive.”
The complaint alleges some shocking behavior, however, particularly for a Democrat running a heavy campaign in a diverse city like Chicago on a platform that stresses support for lower-income families and minorities.
The staffers complain that they were discriminated against “on the basis of their race” and forced “to perform racists (sic) tasks such as to, ‘go round up 40 Black guys’ for an event.” They were stationed in minority neighborhoods, they say, sometimes in unsafe areas, and denied resources given to white campaign workers stationed in white neighborhoods.
The group claims that when they asked why Pritzker refused to make an appearance at their campaign office on Chicago’s south side in a neighborhood that’s seen a wave of violence, they were told “he’ll visit when they stop shooting.”
Another staffer says she was forced to sleep in her car when a campaign donor turned her out on a work trip.
Pritzker and his running mate maintain that the staffers filing the suit have a right to “have their voices heard,” but also note that ” 45 percent of our entire staff are people of color.”