Fast & Furious star Tyrese Gibson has sued Home Depot for $1m (£788m), accusing the retailer of “discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling”.
On Wednesday (9 August), Gibson, 44, reportedly filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Superior Court against the home improvement store chain over an incident that allegedly occurred on 11 February at one of its Los Angeles outlets.
Gibson claims that he and his associates, Eric Mora and Manuel Hernandez, “experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling first-hand”, according to the suit seen by Entertainment Weekly and People.
The three men are seeking $1m in damages – the total Gibson estimates he has spent over the years at Home Depot – in addition to statutory damages, attorney’s fees, punitive damages, a declaratory judgment declaring that Home Depot’s actions violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, and “such other relief as the Court may deem just and proper”.
In a statement shared with The Independent, a Home Depot spokesperson said: “Diversity and respect for all people are core to who we are, and we do not tolerate discrimination in any form. We value Mr Gibson as a customer, and in the months since this happened, we’ve reached out to him and his attorneys several times to try to resolve his concerns. We will continue to do so.”
According to the legal documents, Gibson had decided to wait in his car to let Mora and Hernandez complete his transaction at the store as fans had begun to gather around him.
The suit alleges that once Gibson made the cashier aware of his plan, and permitted his associates to use his credit card, the Home Depot employee “acknowledged Gibson and said he understood”.
“Gibson asked the cashier if the cashier needed anything further from him to complete the transaction. The cashier said no, and that Gibson could leave,” the complaint adds.
It was at this point that the cashier allegedly continued to deny the transaction, even after Gibson tried sharing his consent over FaceTime and later in person.
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“The cashier gave no reasonable explanation other than repeating ‘store policy’ and demanded to see a form of identification,” the complaint states. “The manager refused to speak with Gibson in person. It was only after significant heated discussion with the cashier that Gibson was finally able to complete the transaction.”
It continues: “The actions of the cashier and manager were discriminatory based on race and origin. There is no other plausible explanation for the mistreatment of Plaintiffs. The transaction was refused, despite Gibson’s repeated authorisations, because of Plaintiffs’ skin colour and, in the case of Mora and Hernandez, also because of their national origin.
“This is a clear and deplorable instance of discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling. The treatment of Gibson, Mora and Hernandez by The Home Depot was humiliating and demeaning.”
Gibson shared a clip of the interaction on his Instagram on Friday (11 August).
The Independent has contacted Gibson’s representative for comment.
