Jury Awards $1million to Oregon woman told ‘I don’t serve Black people’

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January 26, 2023

From Associated Press

Gregory Kafoury and Rose Wakefield after their successful racial discriminations case (Kafoury and McDougal)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A jury has awarded an Oregon woman $1 million in damages after finding she was discriminated against by a gas station employee who told her, “I don’t serve Black people.”

The Multnomah County jury’s award this week to Portland resident Rose Wakefield, 63, included punitive damages of $550,000.

Wakefield’s lawyer, Gregory Kafoury, said she stopped for gas at Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton on March 12, 2020, and saw the attendant, Nigel Powers, ignore her and instead pump gas for other drivers.

When she tried to ask for assistance he said, “I’ll get to you when I feel like it,” according to Kafoury.

Attendants are required to pump fuel for motorists at gas stations in Oregon’s larger population centers including Portland and the nearby suburb of Beaverton.

Surveillance video showed Wakefield go inside to ask for help. Another employee followed her back outside to pump her gas. Kafoury said as she was leaving, Wakefield asked Powers why he refused to help her and that he said, “I don’t serve Black people.”

Despite the successes of the struggle for racial justice, incidents like these continue.

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