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Ethiopian sues driver for racist comment
Egged driver calls passenger 'dirty black'. Passenger sues company for 100,000 NIS and formal apology
Eli Senyor
Avinu Baru, a 21-year-old Ethiopian from Hadera, claimed a bus driver yelled a racial slur at him in front of other passengers. Baru responded with a letter to the Egged Bus Company, demanding a formal apology from the driver and reparations of 100,000 NIS (about $25,000).
The specific events are described in a statement submitted to Egged by Baru's attorney, Asaf Sharaff. "During the ride (from Hadera to Tel Aviv), the driver turned to me and asked me to be quiet, because he claimed I was speaking too loudly on the telephone. At his request, I lowered my voice," Baru recounted.
Baru stated that he was sitting in the seat directly behind the driver, and thus was able to hear clearly when the driver turned around and shouted, "you dirty black, be quiet!" According to Baru, other passengers were able to hear the driver's insults, including an Ethiopian sitting next to the complainant.
After a few minutes, Baru stated, the driver seemed to realize he had behaved inappropriately and said to him, "I was speaking to myself, not to you."
As luck would have it, Baru works for the Aroma coffee chain. Thus he was familiar with the reputation of Sharaff, who had sued one of Aroma's owners on behalf of an a car dealership employee who had also been on the receiving end of a racist comment. The complainant in that case won 100,000 NIS.
In the letter sent by Sharaff to Egged, Monday, he wrote that he "is certain that the driver's behavior deserves to be censured, considering that the driver works for a public transportation company and, thus, is meant to transport all passengers, regardless of their race, gender or color."
"The statement made to my client was racially motivated. This was not a mean comment made by the driver to someone whom he wanted to quiet," Sharaff told Ynet.
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