A Black former McDonald's manager was denied requests to avoid shifts with a coworker who repeatedly used racist language including the N-word, according to a lawsuit

• A Black former McDonald's worker is suing the fast-food giant over racial harassment claims.
• The lawsuit says he was denied requests to avoid shifts with an employee who said a racial slur and other racially demeaning language.
• His boss said she didn't like people "outside" of her race, per the lawsuit.

Anthony Green, a Black former McDonald's shift manager, was denied requests to avoid shifts with another employee who used racial slurs, according to a lawsuit he filed against the company and a franchisee on August 19.

He was told by his boss that his hair was "unprofessional" on multiple occasions and that she didn't like people "outside" of her race, per the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, she also said the only reason Green wasn't fired was that his boss didn't want him to pull the "Black card."

Green started working as a shift manager at a McDonald's restaurant in Ottawa, Kansas, in January 2020 when he was 17.

The next month, he overheard a Caucasian employee use the N-word at work, per the lawsuit. Green reported the coworker in writing and told his supervisor, who was the location's general manager. He then requested not to be scheduled at the same time as the employee in the future, per the lawsuit filed in Kansas.

But Green continued to be scheduled the same shifts as the employee, according to the lawsuit.

"Upon information and belief, [McDonald's] took no further action regarding disciplining [the employee] or warning him not to engage in further racially harassing behavior," the lawsuit says.

The employee "continued to repeatedly use racially harassing language," including "often" calling Green "boy," per the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also says that Green spoke to the owner of the Ottawa McDonald's franchise about the employee's racist language. The franchise owner "took no action" against the language and did not alter shift patterns to ensure Green and the employee didn't work together, the lawsuit says.

Green's supervisor also "frequently criticized and demeaned [him] in ways that made him understand that he was being targeted and harassed because of his race," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that McDonald's failed to pay Green overtime wages and that staff altered his time card "to make it appear as if he had worked fewer hours."

"This constant racial harassment made working at McDonald's too stressful for me (or anyone else in my position) to handle, especially because it was apparent that McDonald's had done nothing to stop this harassment and was not interested in doing so," Green wrote in a document accompanying the lawsuit. He said that he had had "no choice" but to quit his job in May 2020.

McDonald's did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Green said he was seeking back-pay, front-pay, emotional distress damages, punitive damages, and "any other remedy the [Kansas Human Rights] Commission deems appropriate."