TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Nationally-recognized civil rights attorneys Benjamin Crump and Jasmine Rand will now represent a ride-sharing customer against Uber for racial discrimination after an Uber driver referred to the passenger as the "n-word."
Javon O'Neal was on his way to his first day of work in August when he was called the racial slur multiple times by the Uber driver named 'Michael.' A part of the exchange was caught on video.
Attorneys Crump and Rand say that in Javon's case Uber attempted to place all blame on the racist driver, and never accepted responsibility as a corporation.
Just last week, Uber apologized for tweeting the same racial slur out from its account. According to ABC affiliate WWSB, the company's account responded to another account that had the N-word in it's Twitter handle.
Uber faced backlash from the public after using that same word to respond to customer’s complaint about a bad driver. The company later deleted the tweet and issued an apology.
We'd like to sincerely apologize for the offensive tweet that was sent earlier. We're investigating what happened to make sure it doesn't happen again.
— Uber Support (@Uber_Support) April 29, 2019
"I just want Uber to take some responsibility, show some ownership," said O'Neal. "If you're over the company and this is your company, you are the sole provider, the sole leader, you should take some ownership and responsibility for the actions your employees have showed."
Attorneys Crump and Rand are best known for their work as civil rights attorneys, including the representation of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.
You can see more of our original coverage of this story here.
