Black firefighter sues Redwood City department, claims discrimination.
Nearly two years ago, Joseph Echema started sleeping in his car instead of the firehouse.
By then, the former Oakland Raiders and Cal football player who works as a Redwood City firefighter had endured several incidents of discrimination and harassment at the department, he said.
In one episode, Echema said he was watching news in the firehouse with his crew when a captain called people protesting police brutality “a bunch of thugs” who “deserved to be shot by the police.” In other instances, a battalion chief allegedly told Echema he looked “intimidating” and “unfriendly,” and a white captain asked whether he could use “n—” in casual conversation.
Thoughts of retiring or leaving for another department filled the lonely hours of what Echema called a “pity party” inside his car.
“I felt less of a person, I felt I didn’t deserve to be a firefighter,” he said. “I spent a lot of time in my car at night just thinking about how I wasn’t the right fit, that I needed to leave or go to another department.”
But Echema stayed and has since embarked on a crusade to change the Fire Department’s culture.
After a series of complaints and an investigation that sustained some of Echema’s allegations but fell short in his estimation, he filed a lawsuit in early June that alleges officials for the city and its Fire Department “unlawfully discrim
inate, harass and retaliate against Black firefighters” as well as “turn a blind eye to such conduct.”
Echema, who claims to have been demoted without cause, said he hopes the suit brings change and shines a spotlight on racism in the firefighting industry, where a lack of diversity often leaves subtle and overt offenses unchecked.
“This is an issue that extends beyond Redwood City,” Echema, 38, said in an interview with The Chronicle. “And it needs to be addressed.”
Of the roughly 318,000 career firefighters in the nation, just 8.5% of them are Black or African American, 1.3% are Asian and 11.6% are Hispanic or Latino, according to the most recent Department of Labor statistics. Labor Department officials did not immediately have a demographic breakdown for firefighters at the state level.
Addington Stewart, president of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters, said he did not know how many complaints like Echema’s are filed every year, but he knows that Black firefighters are often scared to report incidents of racism due to fears of retaliation.
“Basically, you end up becoming a target and they find ways to dismiss you,” Stewart said.
“In a majority of the cases, the people are quitting or they take it,” he added. “We don’t hear about those.”
City Manager Melissa
Stevenson Diaz said officials could not comment on active litigation, but the city “has been, and will continue to be, committed to fostering an organizational culture that promotes public trust and accountability.”
The Fire Department did not respond to emails and a phone message requesting comment.
The harassment detailed in the suit allegedly started after Echema joined the department in 2012 and continued as recently as this year.
In November 2015, Echema was watching the news in the fire station with his crew when the captain called Black Lives Matters protesters “a bunch of punks causing trouble,” according to the suit. In 2016, another captain allegedly asked Echema why he could not use the nword to greet Echema or other Black acquaintances.
A year later, in August 2017, fire officials were watching news coverage of the Charlottesville, Va., rally when a firefighter called people protesting the Confederate flag and Confederate statues “dumb and ignorant,” according to the suit.
The suit also alleges Echema walked in on colleagues laughing and joking at photos of naked Black men and received a text message with a photo of two naked Black women — “depicted negatively and distastefully,” according to the suit — with the caption: “Happy Black Friday.”
In November 2017,
Echema was promoted to the position of tiller operator, the person who drives the rear, freeaxle portion of ladder trucks. But following an exercise in September 2018, in which a captain told Echema to repeat the steps because he had not done the operation correctly, he was demoted.
Echema did not receive a written notice or any statement of a deficiency in his work, according to the suit. Instead, a battalion chief faulted his “overall” performance in the position.
Eventually, Echema said, he reached a breaking point and sought the help of a medical health professional.
“I was in situations where I didn’t have any trust in anybody I was working with,” he said.
“What I was experiencing in my work environment was not OK . ... All that stuff plays a role into your mental health.”
In December 2018, Echema filed a human resources grievance as well as a written complaint saying he was unjustly demoted and subjected to racist comments, according to the suit. The complaint included an allegation that a battalion chief told him he was not a “cultural fit” for the department while suggesting he look for work at a department in Oakland, San Jose or San Francisco.
The city found all allegations to be “not sustained” except that employees had “made or shared derogatory, crude, or offensive statements, jokes, or images related to race,” according to the suit. City officials did not consider several of the claims in a letter they issued, including the culture fit allegation.
“At the end of the day, I tried to do everything in house,” Echema said. “I tried to do everything quietly. I tried to do everything by the book and I was not getting results.”
Echema filed the lawsuit but continues to serve as a firefighter. He now sleeps in the firehouse again and even though he’s thought about leaving, he does not want to face the same problems at another department. Echema said he thinks increased diversity and changes in leadership could help solve the systemic issues of discrimination he’s alleged, but he suspects.
“When those sentiments of racism are allowed to go unchecked they are transversely repeated in the community,” Echema said.
Much like he felt a calling to public service when he joined the department — following in the footsteps of his father, a pastor; his mother, a teacher; and his sister, a nurse — Echema said he feels compelled to ride it out.
“I kind of feel like I need to stay and be a voice and remind them: Hey, this is an issue and we are in this together,” he said. “I feel like, if I just run away or leave, those things will be forgotten.”