Former Marriott Sales Exec Sues For Racial Discrimination, Claims He Was Forced To Dance And Compared To Buckwheat

A former sales executive for Marriott Vacations Worldwide alleges in a lawsuit that he was asked to dance during meetings as entertainment for other employees and that a photo of the character Buckwheat was used to represent him during a team building exercise.

Daryl Robinson is suing for unlawful race discrimination, unlawful race harassment, failure to prevent race discrimination and harassment and retaliation for opposing forbidden practices.

Robinson began working in February 2017 as a sales executive with Marriott selling timeshares to vacation properties. He says he was the only African-American employee in the office.

In the suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Robinson alleges that he was asked on multiple occasions to dance by a director of sales during sales meetings, usually to music by Michael Jackson.

On another occasion, the director of sales complimented most of the staff by saying “we have a good-looking crew” or related comments, according to the suit. The director of sales then looked at Robinson and allegedly said, “Daryl looks ready to breakdance."

John Dalton, Robinson's attorney, told NBC News on Wednesday that Robinson was singled out and embarrassed while at his offices in Palm Desert, California.

"Admittedly, one time, he did get up and dance," Dalton said. "There were a number of times he was asked and he was like, 'No, no thanks.' And when he did get up, he was the new guy. He didn’t want to make waves."

Dalton said he spent several months investigating Robinson's claims and was able to corroborate most of them by speaking to his former colleagues.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide spokesman Ed Kinney told NBC News on Wednesday: "We are aware of the allegations of this suit but as a policy, do not comment on legal issues and matters."

Robinson is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, according to the suit.

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I really hope he's paid every dime he's seeking. If anyone else is experiencing workplace racism and harassment, speak up. The more you sit there and allow the abuse to happen the more they continue to laugh at us. Yes we may collect some money in the end, but what about us finally standing up for ourselves rather than seeking a check in the end? I hope he hits their pockets really deep and those employees are fired. That's something else I want to know, what happened to the racist employees?