Washington state's first equity director is fired after allegedly fat-shaming colleagues and making racist comments like 'I generally distrust Mexican people'

Daily Mail ^ | 6/08/23 | Melissa Koenig

[Libloather]

Washington State's first equity director has been fired after an investigation found she made racist comments towards Hispanic colleagues and even fat-shamed one employee.

Karen Johnson, the first director of the state's Office of Equity, was terminated from her position on May 17 after an independent investigation revealed several of her employees had complained about her 'biased and insensitive conduct.'

One Mexican employee told investigators how Johnson once said she had a 'distrust of Mexican people,' while another said the director attacked her for her weight.

Johnson has denied these allegations, and is said to be considering bringing a wrongful termination suit against the State.

But when asked about his decision to fire Johnson, Gov. Jay Inslee told KING 5 News the office 'required leadership to be able to manage the agency appropriately' and 'we needed some more leadership there.'

She has been succeeded in her position by Megan Matthews, who is serving as the acting director.

As MFR Law Group PLLC investigated Johnson's helm at the newly-formed Office of Equity, it uncovered reports from staffers who claimed Johnson was racist against Hispanics.

In one instance, she allegedly told a Mexican employee: 'This may take some time for me because I generally distrust Mexican people.'

She then allegedly said, 'Mexican people have the option of being white when it's convenient for them,' according to documents obtained by KING 5 News.

Another employee also said Johnson had an 'us versus them' mentality when it came to her Hispanic co-workers, often calling them out for not having 'lived experiences' of racism.

Her management style was also brought up in interviews with the investigators, which found that she micromanaged staff, was disorganized and lacked adequate structure and processes and made unreasonable requests.

[sten]

he-said she-said case hinging on’racist comments’ without any evidence

Don’t get me wrong, that’s total bs.

But the fact that it happened to a black woman is just hilarious

Live by the sword, die by the sword? ROFLMAO

[Ann Archy]

OMG!! the RACIST is BLACK!! I am SHOCKED!

[A_perfect_lady]

She’s not wrong, though. Light-skinned Latinos can blend in with White folks when they want, and then turn around and pull the Race card when it suits them. I’ve been saying for a while that Latinos need to understand that Black folks don’t necessarily consider them POC. To many Black folks, there are only two races: Black, and not Black.

[jocon307]

“Racism is the belief that one’s own race is superior to another.”

I’m too lazy to look up anything up in the dictionary, but I’m not at all sure that is the only and entire definition of “racism”.

I also understand that “Mexican” is a Nationality, not a Race, so the word is a bit off for that reason. But this woman makes a statement disparaging all Mexicans, what would you call it? Just bigotry?

But of course, she tips the hand for the whole game. We must judge people as individuals.

[simpson96]

No picture needed.

I knew when I read "said she had a 'distrust of Mexican people,'

[Cloverfarm]

Years ago I worked in a factory with people from literally everywhere. I was shocked that the blacks didn’t like the Hispanics (and told me so ... I guess being a ginger i was neutral?) and the Hispanics didn’t like the blacks, either, and told me so. (Again, being a ginger, I must have seemed neutral). I can’t remember who the Hindu’s didn’t like. Amongst Hub’s cousins, one married a girl from Japan and one married a girl from Korea. They commented once how they got along so well. From my anecdotal evidence I conclude that no one group has a lock on racism.

[Eva]

The new woke departments in the WA government are a bad joke because they are so single minded. They have one purpose only and can’t seem to look beyond it. We have a new director of green energy production, both solar and wind farms. This new guy is very focused on off shore wind farms. I guess he isn’t from WA and doesn’t know about the focus on salmon and the whales. …and no one seems inclined to tell him. They just let him go on and on about the off shore wind farms that he wants to build in the Puget Sound.

[markman46]

most if not all latinos/Latinas do not like black people period.

[jocon307]

It’s lucky those two cousins-in-law got on well! I remember a news story from years ago about a state visit by some Japanese leaders to Korea. Don’t remember any details, just that the Korean man tasked with raising the Japanese flag afterwards committed suicide, he was so ashamed of having done that job.