SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 9 – Michelle Chu, a 43-year old Asian American woman of Chinese descent, went to work in 2015 at Alpha UX, Inc., a New York City-based tech start-up. She says Alpha's CEO Thor Ernstsson made "sexist, racist, abusive or otherwise offensive comments" to her.
She sued.
On July 9 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul G. Gardephe held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it.
Chu says that Ernstsson's account image on Slack was a picture of a statue of a naked man.
He abused Chu on Slack, she says, and "Mayowa Fadina, one of Alpha's only African-American employees, was subjected to inappropriate racist comments that were so severe it nearly led to a physical altercation at an Alpha work function."
Chu says that "Alpha's employees openly 'joke' - on Alpha's oen Slack channels - about one another's six lives, masturbation, rape and having sex with animals."
On July 9 Judge Gardephe said they could take all this to Magistrate Judge Netburn, who was handling the Magistrates' Court that day.
The case is Chu v. Alpha UX, Inc., 20-cv-497 (Gardephe)
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