Graci Harkema, in a Facebook post late last month said she was quitting after just nine months serving as director of diversity and inclusion at Founders Brewing Company. In her post, Harkema attached a letter she wrote to executives at her former company, taking issue with the way the firm dealt with the lawsuit by Tracy Evans, a former packaging-machine operator. Evans filed a lawsuit in August of last year alleging that a co-worker called him the N-word and that, despite reporting this to human resources, “his complaints fell on deaf ears,” the suit notes.
The company also did not promote Evans due to race, his suit alleges, and then fired him in June of last year when he told his manager he was going to reach out to HR. Founders Brewing has denied race as a factor for Evans' firing, but offered no response about the other allegations.
In the letter Harkema posted on Facebook, she wrote that her ideas for dealing with Evans' lawsuit were dismissed by the company and that they were instead interested in just winning the case. "You are most concerned with the ego of 'winning' than you are about the loss of customers, loss of reputation, and loss of employees' wellbeing," Evans' October 25 letter reads. "We as a company, didn't have to be at the place we are at now.”