Black Marriott Exec Was Compared to 'Buckwheat,' Told to Dance for Colleagues, Lawsuit Alleges

NBCNews.com

A former sales executive for Marriott Vacations Worldwide alleges in a lawsuit that he was asked to dance during meetings as entertainment for other employees and that a photo of the character Buckwheat was used to represent him during a team building exercise. Daryl Robinson is suing for unlawful race discrimination, unlawful race harassment, failure to prevent race discrimination and harassment and retaliation for opposing forbidden practices. Robinson began working in February 2017 as a sales executive with Marriott selling timeshares to vacation properties. He says he was the only African-American employee in the office. In the suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Robinson alleges that he was asked on multiple occasions to dance by a director of sales during sales meetings, usually to music by Michael Jackson.