Tesla [Newsis]
Tesla [Newsis]

Tesla, the electric vehicle company led by Elon Musk, is facing trial over allegations that it allowed racial discrimination to persist within its workforce.

The trial opened Tuesday (local time) at a state superior court in Oakland, California, where California's Civil Rights Department has sued Tesla, according to Bloomberg and The Guardian.

The department alleges that dozens of Black employees at Tesla's Fremont factory were subjected to racial slurs, unequal pay, blocked promotions and harassment, and that Tesla management did nothing to stop it.

As evidence, the department cited photographs showing racist graffiti on factory walls — including the word "nigger" — as well as messages reading "go back to Africa" written in restrooms, on lockers and on cafeteria tables, along with white supremacist symbols and references to the Ku Klux Klan.

Brett Watson, an attorney for the Civil Rights Department, said Black employees had endured pervasive racial discrimination for years, with one worker exposed to discriminatory slurs as many as 50 to 100 times a day.

"This is not the conduct of a few rogue employees," he said. "Hundreds of complaints filed with Tesla and state agencies show this was not an isolated incident."

He also said the factory was effectively segregated by race, with Black workers receiving lower pay than their white counterparts and fewer opportunities for promotion.

Tesla denied all the allegations, saying it had always disciplined employees who used racial slurs.

Tyrei Jones, Tesla's lead attorney, repeatedly said "hey, my nigger" in open court, arguing that the so-called N-word was used as a greeting rather than a racial insult.

Witnesses, however, testified that Tesla stood by while racial harassment occurred and that Musk himself intervened to give preferential treatment to white employees.

A security manager who worked at Tesla for two years said he reported to human resources after a white employee directed racial slurs at him more than 10 times, but never received a response.

Another senior security manager testified that when white employees were caught drinking on the job, Musk personally ordered that they not be fired, overriding company policy.

The case has drawn added attention amid Musk's public embrace of white supremacist conspiracy theories on X, formerly Twitter.

Musk has used X to promote far-right parties in Europe and to amplify claims that a "white genocide" is underway.

The trial, which will be decided by a judge without a jury, is scheduled to run through Oct. 30.


husn7@heraldcorp.com