A Black aeronautical engineer who was born in Cameroon and worked for a technology company settled a lawsuit against his former employer in which he alleged his boss, who is also Black, discriminated against him because she did not like men from Africa.
Joh Goody brought the lawsuit Aug. 7, 2020, in Los Angeles Superior Court against ManTech International Corp. and the supervisor, Lisa Austin. The suit alleged wrongful termination, harassment, retaliation and negligence. Goody sought unspecified damages.
Goody’s lawyer, Pamela McKibbin Teren, filed a notice of settlement Feb. 2 with Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis. No terms were divulged.
ManTech maintained the lawsuit was never served on the company or on Austin. Both sides filed court papers last Oct. 15 stating they agreed to put the case on hold for 120 days to “explore non-litigation options.”
Although ManTech’s office are located in El Segundo, Goody’s work for the company was almost entirely performed at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, where he was a Falcon heavy propulsion and structures quality engineer on the Launch Enterprise Systems Engineering and Integration contract with the U.S. Space Force, the suit stated.
Austin became Goody’s direct supervisor in February 2019 and although she is a Black female, she “expressed her bias against males from Africa” and the plaintiff’s “dark skin color,” the suit stated.
Austin told Goody that although she is Black and was raised in Pasadena, she was not from “the ghetto” and instead grew up in the “white” side of the city, the suit stated.
Austin told Goody that people viewed her as an “angry Black woman,” but that she was actually “a white man in a Black woman’s body,” the suit states.
Goody was required to take educational courses as part of his job and ManTech’s policy was to reimburse employees for doing so, the suit stated. However, Austin refused to authorize payment for Goody’s tuition costs even though she did so for non-African employees, according to the suit.
In October 2019, Goody filed an internal discrimination complaint concerning Austin’s alleged “I don’t like African men” comments and other remarks he attributed to her, the suit stated. He also said he was concerned she was interfering with his ability to perform his work, the suit stated.
Austin later told Goody she wanted to speak with him and was “visibly angry” that he had reported her to management, the suit stated.
In May 2019, Goody had observed that ManTech’s bills to the Air Force included time billed by an employee who had been approved for a leave of absence from work during his probationary period and had resigned from his position, the suit stated.
“Plaintiff was concerned that ManTech’s bills to the U.S. Air Force included false billing entries,” the suit stated.
SpaceX had rules for workers aimed at keeping business projects at SpaceX confidential, but the company allowed workers to accompany visitors to the facility with advance authorization, according to the suit.
Goody obtained authorization from SpaceX to bring a friend and her minor sons to tour the SpaceX facility on Sept. 27, the suit states. Goody was unaware that SpaceX required a company employee to conduct tours that were not business-related, the suit stated.
Austin subsequently disciplined Goody, falsely accusing him of permitting unauthorized persons to SpaceX’s facility, the suit stated.
Goody believes Austin’s discipline was “substantially motivated” by discrimination and retaliation because she did not punish white employees who broke similar rules. Goody similarly believes his Oct. 25 firing was “substantially motivated” by discriminatory and retaliatory reasons, the suit stated.