Preet hits DOT ‘racism’

US Attorney Preet Bharara’s office has filed a scathing lawsuit against the city Department of Transportation — accusing it of systemic racism under its previous commissioner.

Black employees of the fleet-services division were called “n---ers,” “monkeys” and “gorillas” — and white bosses demoted them and kept them from getting promotions and overtime, according to the suit filed Wednesday that seeks damages for victims and changes to DOT practices.

The trouble started in 2007, when the agency was led by Janette Sadik-Khan in the Bloomberg administration, although she is not implicated in court papers.

At the time, an unidentified, newly promoted white executive director demanded that his second-incommand demote a black assistant supervisor.

When the employee repeatedly refused, the boss threw a tantrum, took the assistant supervisor’s computer and rerouted phone calls away from his office, court papers say.

Another black worker asked for a cellphone, but the boss allegedly refused and instead handed one to a white colleague with less seniority.

“That n---er gets nothing,” the exec director said, according to the suit.

That boss was pushed out in 2010, but the next director continued promoting mostly whites and also refused overtime to black employees, the suit alleges.

DOT officials said they have been working to make sure similar acts of racism do not occur and that they are willing to compensate the victims.