An Oregon woman won a $1 million settlement including punitive damages after a jury found she was racially discriminated against by a gas station employee, reports NBC News.
Back on March 12, 2020, Rose Wakefield stopped for gas at Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton, when Nigel Powers, the attendant on duty at the time, was pumping gas for other drivers but refused to offer her service.
When she asked for assistance, Powers responded, "I'll get to you when I feel like it,” said Gregory Kafoury, Wakefield's attorney.
After asking why she wasn't being helped, Powers told her, "I don’t serve Black people.”
"I went to a gas station to get gas and service, and I wasn't served," Wakefield said about her experince. "I was actually humiliated and disrespected."
"I was like, 'What world am I living in?'" she continued. "This is not supposed to go down like that. It was a terrible, terrible confrontation between me and this guy."
In larger populated areas like Beaverton and Portland, attendants are required to pump gas for customers in the state of Oregon.
Initially, Wakefield was not going to pursue legal action until her friend's convinced her that she needed to take action.
"Ms. Wakefield originally was just going to let this go," said Kafoury. "She told her friends that it was too disturbing, and she didn't want to deal with it. And then she thought about it and said, 'It's too wrong. I have to do something about it.'"
Jacksons Food Stores has since issued a statement saying that while the company has a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of discriminatory behavior, they did not agree with the judge's ruling.
"After carefully reviewing all facts and evidence, including video surveillance, we chose to take this matter to trial because we were comfortable based on our knowledge that the service-related concern actually reported by the customer was investigated and promptly addressed," the company’s statement read.
Kafoury also claimed that Jackson Food Stores never addressed the racist comments that Power's made to Wakefield.
"The attendant was never questioned by the company about the racist comments, and was disciplined only for failing to serve customers in the order of their arrival," added Kafoury.
At the conclusion of the four-day trial, Wakefield said that she hopes that her story will help to bring an end to racial discrimination throughout Oregon.
"I didn't want this to happen to anyone else," she said. "It was a terrible scene, and no one should have to go through nothing like that."
