When Martin Hopkins was fired from a Lancaster, Ohio, Verizon Wireless store in June, all the sales solutions specialist could think about were his six years of receiving the highest possible performance reviews in the midst of multiple racial incidents.
“There would be times when customers would come in and either ask for ‘the colored boy,’ or refuse to work with the ‘colored boy,’” says Hopkins, 34, who was the only non-White person working at the store. “Some referred to me with the n-word. Management would say that I had to take the customer and that I [couldn’t] say anything.”
