Belleville Lube Shop Owner's Racist Talk Led to Firing, Mass Exodus, Workers Say

DeWayne Wren says he was fired from his job at a Metro East lube shop after objecting to his boss' use of the n-word and other racial slurs. And it's not just Wren's word against his former employer — not only do two other employees back up his allegations, but they say they walked off the job in protest, along with two others.

Wren worked at East End X-Press Lube in Belleville, Illinois, beginning in February 2018. But he says owner Paul Beeler's racist language quickly became an ongoing problem.

One day, Wren says, Beeler told a customer a story about his time as a milk truck driver and joked that “the black kids running to get their milk looked like monkeys.” On another occasion, Wren says, Beeler observed Wren's waistband slipping low on a hot day. "I don’t understand why black people get offended when they’re called [the n-word] when they wear their pants on their ass, because that is what they look like and right now you look like a [n-word]," he says Beeler told him.

A former employee, Ethan Haas, confirms that he also heard the exchange about Wren's pants. And Samuel Sargeant, another ex-employee, recalls Beeler making at least three racist comments during the months that he worked there.

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2018/09/10/belleville-lube-shop-owners-racist-talk-led-to-firing-mass-exodus-workers-say