White man's racial harassment suit against Seattle’s DEI program goes ahead after appeal to Ninth Circuit Court

A white former Seattle employee says the city’s DEI program helped fuel years of racial harassment against him. On Monday, a Ninth Circuit panel of Democratic presidential appointees ruled that a jury could hear his claims, handing Seattle a significant defeat in its effort to end the case.

Joshua Diemert alleges that the hostility began in city racial justice trainings and followed him into daily interactions with supervisors and coworkers. Chief Judge Mary Murguia wrote that the alleged incidents, considered together, were serious enough for his hostile work environment claims to proceed.

At the time Diemert’s lawsuit was filed in November 2022, his attorney, Laura D’Agostino of the Pacific Legal Foundation, said that Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative was encouraging discrimination and harassment rather than treating employees as individuals.

Diemert worked in Seattle’s Human Services Department, assessing applications for utility bill assistance. According to the Ninth Circuit’s account of his allegations, a manager questioned what he could offer the department as a straight white man. Another allegedly told him it was impossible to be racist toward white people after he objected to a coworker denying an eligible white applicant assistance because of the applicant’s supposed white privilege.

Diemert also alleges that a supervisor urged him to give up a lead role, in part so a person of color could be promoted. His original lawsuit alleged that the pressure was tied to his need for family medical leave. The appellate opinion recounts the dispute over the lead position; it does not find that the city discriminated against him over his leave.

At a city racial justice workshop, Diemert said trainers made sweeping derogatory statements about white people. Coworkers allegedly called him a white supremacist after he challenged statements made during the training. He also alleges that a supervisor physically accosted him, called him a colonist, and blamed him for injustices in the United States.

The Ninth Circuit found that the alleged incidents were sufficiently numerous, frequent, and severe for a jury to assess whether Diemert faced a racially hostile workplace under federal civil rights law and the Washington Law Against Discrimination. The panel reversed a district judge’s decision dismissing those claims before trial.

Murguia was appointed by President Barack Obama. The other judges on the panel, William Fletcher and Lucy Koh, were appointed by Presidents Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, respectively, according to the Ninth Circuit’s judicial roster.

Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative began in 2004. The opinion describes city-sponsored racial affinity groups and training descriptions aimed at employees according to race, including an “Internalized Racial Superiority” session directed at white employees and an “Internalized Racial Oppression” session directed at employees of color. Seattle made the initiative permanent city policy in 2023.

The ruling carries a warning for Seattle’s DEI program and other employers using similar training. The panel said employers may discuss historical discrimination and work to address racial barriers. It also held that race-conscious training programs can violate federal civil rights law when they create a racially hostile work environment.

The case now heads to district court, where the city must defend the surviving federal and state hostile work environment claims.