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Trevor Baston was an employee at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City and according to his lawsuit, his experience was filled with microaggressions and flat-out racism.
According to The Kansas City Star, Baston listed a series of incidents, including a white employee calling him “boy,” another incident where the same employee called a Black co-worker “Aunt Jemima,” and an instance where a nurse allegedly told him she was afraid of “big Black men.”
Baston’s lawsuit was first filed in Jackson County Circuit Court in November, then it escalated to the United States Court for the Western District of Missouri last week. It accuses St. Luke’s Physician Group and St. Luke’s Health System of eight counts of race, color and sex discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
Baston started his work at the hospital as a medical technician in May 2017. Three months into his employment, a new manager carried out “severe and pervasive harassment,” according to a complaint filed with the Missouri Human Rights Commission.
In the lawsuit that reached the federal courts, Baston said the manager told him and another Black employee to put their cellphones away, yet she would look at pictures and watch clips on the phones of other employees, who were white. When Baston called out the manager on this, according to the lawsuit, she shook her head and walked away without commenting.
A month later, Baston was given a bad review by the manager, which prevented him from getting a raise, according to the lawsuit. When he complained about the review, it was changed. However, by this time, it was too late to receive the raise. Baston was also given a written warning from his boss for allegedly accessing his own medical records, although Baston told his boss that he didn’t remember doing this. Meanwhile, Baston says two other white employees accessed their medical records with no repercussions.
Eventually, Baston’s manager was moved to another position outside of his department in December. However, the following month, issues continued. He says a white employee would repeatedly call him “boy,” even after Baston explained how such a term is offensive to Black men. According to the lawsuit, he told her to call him by his name and she responded, “You don’t know what you are talking about boy, be quiet boy.” When Baston brought the issue up to his manager, she told him that he was “looking at it incorrectly” and that his co-worker didn’t mean it. Baston also says he witnessed that same employee call another black employee “Aunt Jemima.”
Baston said another white employee, a nurse practitioner, once asked him to stand in a room with her while she was with a patient she called “creepy.” According to the lawsuit, the patient was a Black guy about the same size as Baston and he appeared normal in Baston’s eyes.
After the nurse finished meeting with the patient, much faster than usual according to the lawsuit, she thanked Baston for standing with her. “Sometimes I am afraid of big black men especially ones that look like the guy that killed my brother,” the nurse said, according to the lawsuit. When Baston asked her if she was afraid of him and if she realized he too was a “big Black man,” she didn’t answer. Instead, she shushed Baston and left.
None of Baston’s issues were addressed, according to his lawsuit, and when he told his manager he believed he had to file an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint, he was advised to keep quiet.
Eventually, he did file the complaint in March 2019, according to the lawsuit. Once he did, he says his manager began following him around at work trying to find a reason to discipline or fire him.
In July, St. Luke’s held an unconscious bias training, however, Baston’s supervisor didn’t handle it with sensitivity and care, according to his suit. Instead, at the end, his boss told staff, “What I want you all to do is just get over it and let the past be the past,” according to the suit. Baston believes the comment was directed at him and another Black employee.
Eventually, he went on medical leave due to the “stress and anxiety” the whole situation caused him. While he was gone, he was told that somebody else would be hired for his position.
The lawsuit is seeking emotional distress and economic damages along with a jury trial.
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