In a newly filed lawsuit, a former shoe company employee says that Serena Williams was called "disgusting" after she asked for a discount on a pair of shoes that she wanted.
Page Six reports that the former employee who's making these claims is named Whitney Wilburn. She's a black woman who's now suing the store for racial discrimination. Wilburn says that the store often gave discounts to celebrities who asked. But, her former boss, Grace Mazzilli, didn't want to give one to Williams and expressed racial undertones when she made the decision.
Wilburn legal docs claims that Mazzilli was “hostile to Wilburn based upon her race and age” and her “experience with Mazzilli left no doubt about Mazzilli’s racial animosity toward African Americans.”
The suit continued: “For instance, when the world famous athlete Serena Williams, via her staff, asked for a discount on her extensive purchases, Gianvito managers responded with racially disparaging comments about Ms. Williams which made it clear that the company did not want African American women to wear its shoes.”
The paperwork goes on to say that the other managers “referred to Ms. Williams as ‘disgusting’ and refused to offer any discount” and “When later pressured to do so by a contact at Vogue magazine, they offered only a fraction of the discount that white celebrities typically receive.”
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