DAD’S LEGAL ACTION ON ICE-T ‘RACE SLUR’
Rowover worker sent ‘lookalike’ snap of rap star
A BLACK sales executive is suing for racial discrimination after a white colleague sent him a photo likening him to gangster rapper Ice-T.
Gavin Chittick got a snap of the star holding a machine-gun, with a caption reading: “Gavin Chittick = Ice Tea.”
The dad of three launched legal action against energy provider Total Gas and Power, claiming racial profiling. Ice-T’s hits include a track called Cop Killer.
Gavin told the Sunday Mirror: “I felt the image was a negative stereotype of my ethnic group. If I’d been sent an image of Ice-T at the beach with his family having a good time, fine, that’s a fair representation of me as a person.
But him posing with a gun looking menacing enforces the stereotype of the criminal, gangster, drug dealer. Why should I be compared to that?”
Gavin, 43, claims senior management told him that if he was white he would not have been offended.
Total G&P denies racial discrimination and argues the picture was sent “as a joke as there were similarities of appearance”. An employment tribunal in Leeds is expected to deliver a verdict next month. According to papers, Gavin’s co-worker was later promoted .
Gavin said: “I wasn’t saying, ‘He’s a racist, I can’t stand him’. I was trying to detail to them that I had been offended.
“I was hoping they’d understand. Unfortunately, none of that happened.
Instead, he was promoted.” Total, whose HQ is in Redhill, Surrey, held two grievance proceedings. It ruled the photo was “inappropriate” but Gavin’s racial complaint was not upheld.
A letter from the firm told Gavin: “It is difficult to perceive any racist motive when a picture of a white musician or rap artist sent to a white colleague would be unlikely to produce such a response.”
Gavin said: “They essentially told me that if I was lucky enough to be white, then I’d have perceived it differently. Who are they to understand what it is like to be a different ethnicity?” Lawyers for Total argued in tribunal papers: “The rap artist has no negative or criminal associations.
“The claim of offence at this is disproportionate and unreasonable. The manager was told the picture had been sent as a joke as there were similarities of appearance between the rap artist and the claimant.”
Gavin’s solicitor Fiona Almazedi said: “He is a family man who was very upset at racial profiling as he saw it.” Total declined to comment.
Pic enforces a stereotype of a criminal drug dealer ...yes, I was offended
GAVIN CHITTICK ON PIC LIKENING HIM TO ICE-T