Tesla, Inc. Race Discrimination and Harassment Lawsuit

Tesla, Inc. Race Discrimination and Harassment Lawsuit

Vaughn v. Tesla, Inc. (Case Number RG17882082) is a former class action lawsuit brought by Marcus Vaughn, Titus McCaleb, Monica Chatman, Chanel Hendrix, and Garret Parker, Black former and current employees at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California. The class has been decertified by Alameda Superior Court, meaning it is no longer a class action. If you are or were a Black and/or African American worker on Tesla’s Fremont factory production floor between November 9, 2016 and the present who experienced race harassment and you would like to be evaluated for an individual lawsuit against Tesla to assert your damages claims, CLICK HERE. 

The case alleges widespread race discrimination and harassment, including the pervasive use of racially offensive language (like the “N-word”) by associates, leads, and supervisors. The lawsuit says that despite its knowledge of such conduct, Tesla has not taken sufficient action to stop the ongoing racism in its factory. The lawsuit seeks to stop the ongoing race discrimination and harassment at Tesla’s Fremont factory, to obtain meaningful compensation for current and former Black employees who were exposed to unlawful race harassment at Tesla, and to punish Tesla for its conduct. 

Background
Plaintiff Marcus Vaughn began working at Tesla’s Fremont factory on April 23, 2017 as a General Assembly Production Associate. Shortly thereafter, employees and supervisors began harassing him routinely on the basis of his race, and using derogatory language, including the "N-word," to refer to him. On July 21, 2017, Mr. Vaughn complained in writing to Human Resources and CEO Elon Musk about the hostile work environment. Tesla did not stop the unlawful conduct. Instead, Tesla terminated Mr. Vaughn on October 31, 2017 for “not having a positive attitude.” Plaintiffs McCaleb, Chatman, Hendrix, and Parker had similar experiences, with Tesla failing to address the race harassment at the factory.

On May 17, 2024, the Alameda Superior Court certified the case as a class action. The court noted that “[t]he approximately 500 declarations in support of and in opposition to this motion suggest that over a period of approximately eight years Tesla workers in the Fremont factory heard the n-word and otherwise experienced conditions that might reasonably be characterized as race harassment.”

On December 16, 2025, the Alameda Superior Court de-certified the case as a class action, due to Tesla’s request that they do so. Previously, the Court had ordered that Plaintiffs could not select witnesses to testify about race harassment in the class trial, but that 200 witnesses were to be selected randomly from the thousands of Black workers in the class. Many of the randomly selected witnesses were unable to, or chose not to, participate. Plaintiffs requested that the court allow fewer witnesses to testify and allow the parties to choose witnesses. The Court denied Plaintiffs’ requests. After that, Tesla requested the Court to decertify the class.

If you are a former class member and do not currently have an individual representation agreement with us, please read on to determine what this means for you.

What’s Next

We previously represented you as a member of the Vaughn class action, but because the class has been decertified, we are no longer counsel to the class. You may have an approaching deadline and, being cautious, you should get a right-to-sue authorization from the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) to file your own lawsuit without delay – https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/complaintprocess/?content=fileComplaint#fileComplaintBody. Once the CRD issues a right-to-sue notice, you have one year to file a lawsuit. 

If you request a right-to-sue notice, and we agree to represent you, you must tell us that you requested the right-to-sue notice. If you request a right-to-sue notice and you do not inform us, we are not responsible for your deadline and we may be required to end representation. Please also note that if you request a right-to-sue notice for claims other than race harassment, we will represent you only as to your race harassment claims.

Depending on the facts of your case, we may be able to represent you to assist you with your case, but we cannot promise representation until we have evaluated the necessary facts. Please CLICK HERE if you are interested in us evaluating your case for representation. 

Other Cases
The California Civil Rights Department ((CRD), formerly Department of Fair Employment and Housing), the state agency responsible for enforcing laws against discrimination in the workplace, filed a lawsuit on February 9, 2022 against Tesla alleging racial harassment, racial discrimination and retaliation (Case Number 22CV006830). The CRD is hoping to seek relief for all aggrieved employees who have worked at Tesla in California. Through its lawsuit, the CRD aims to hold Tesla accountable for ongoing race discrimination and harassment throughout California, including the Fremont factory. The CRD is seeking relief for all Black and African American employees who worked for Tesla anywhere in the state, which is a broader group of workers than the one involved in this case. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has also recently filed a federal lawsuit with similar claims.

If you identify as Black and/or African American, have been employed at Tesla’s Fremont factory between November 2016 and the present, and are interested in pursuing claims, please CLICK HERE. You can step forward to help fight race discrimination and harassment at Tesla and seek compensation for race harassment.