Black man hired to combat county's racism wins settlement after being fired for reporting a racial incident

Emmanuel Price was hired by Multnomah County to work in the Diversity and Equity department and was ironically fired for reporting a racial incident, reported OregonLive. 

After being fired he filed a formal complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. Price was originally seeking $470,000 but was rewarded 40 percent of that. The county commissioners settled the lawsuit and ordered the county to pay Price $200,000.

Price, a black and Hispanic man,  filed the lawsuit in March of 2017 after witnessing police Sgt. Tim Sessions making racial remarks about people of color.

During a county’s youth commission meeting in January 2016 Sgt. Tim Sessions laughed at Mexican man mispronouncing the N-Word while giving a presentation.

“He made fun of the Mexican guy not being able to pronounce it,” he said. “... It was just really ugly. It was terrible.”

During the time of the complaint, he had a meeting with higher-ups in the company and Sgt. Tim Sessions and believed the situation was resolved.

However, Price was fired nine days later.

The county claimed that Price was fired for "poor work attendance and failing to communicate with his supervisor."

A county spokeswoman declined a request to comment by the Oregon Live News on Friday.