Capital City NOW to Sodexho: Stop Race Discrimination NOW!

Title: Capital City NOW to Sodexho: Stop Race Discrimination NOW!

 Capital City NOW to Sodexho: Stop Race Discrimination Now!

D.C. Feminists to Rally in Support of African American Plaintiffs in Race
Discrimination Case

May 19, 2004

Capital City NOW (CCNOW) is calling on Washington, D.C. feminists and
progressive allies to support the more than 2500 African American managers
covered in a class action, race discrimination suit against food and
building services giant Sodexho. CCNOW will rally in front of the U.S.
District Courthouse (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, E.
Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, 333 Constitution Ave., NW) at 9:30 AM on
Thursday, May 20, 2004.

"'Separate but equal' is unacceptable in classrooms and it's unacceptable
in school lunchrooms and corporate boardrooms too," said Capital City NOW
President Hannah Olanoff. "Just days after celebrating the anniversary of
Brown v. Board of Education, the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision
that made school segregation illegal, we find ourselves fighting corporate
segregation at Sodexho. Segregation was wrong in 1954 and it?s still
wrong in 2004!"

Sodexho, a multinational food and facilities management services company,
is the subject of a landmark class action suit filed by a group of African
Americans. Plaintiffs in the suit, which covers more than 2500 current
and former black managers, allege that they have been denied promotions
because of their race. In essence, they claim to have been segregated
into "black" accounts and prevented from attaining promotions. (For
details on the lawsuit, please visit SodexhoClassAction.com.)

Allegations against Sodexho include:

• One upper-level white Sodexho manager allegedly said that African
  Americans are "genetically inferior to whites," "lived like animals" and
  "didn't deserve to have promotions."

• Another top Sodexho manager reportedly said in a deposition that the
  "n-word" is not necessarily offensive and could be used as a "term of
  endearment" by a white person when referring to African American
  coworkers.

• Sodexho allegedly has segregated many of its black managers into "black
  accounts." In two-thirds of its accounts, with 50 or more workers, there
  are no black managers at all.

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Founded in 1985, Capital City NOW is a local chapter of the National
Organization for Women, and fights for women's rights in Washington, D.C.

NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Hannah Olanoff
phone: 202-543-4577 email: NOW_capcity@yahoo.com