i'd like this thread to be an ongoing thing where folk post stories/info about racist practices in/of American companies.

here's story #1, about Tyson Foods. (Published in the Independent (UK), 9-16-05)

US Poultry Giant Under Fire After Segregation Scandal is Revealed
by Andrew Buncombe

A group of black workers is suing the world's largest poultry meat producer, accusing it of tolerating a racist workplace where African Americans were routinely abused and a "whites only" sign was pinned to the lavatory door.

Tyson Foods is accused by 13 workers of maintaining a segregated system in a break area at one of its plants in Ashland, Alabama, that was "reminiscent of the Jim Crow era".

In addition to the posting of the "whites only" sign, the workers allege that the lavatory was padlocked and only white workers were given a key, that workers hung a noose in one of the recreation rooms and annotated a picture of monkeys with the names of black staff. When the workers complained, they say the plant manager told them the facilities had been locked because they were "nasty, dirty [and] behaved like children".

[...cont'd]

for the full story, see www.commondreams.org/headlin...6-08.htm