Founders Brewing has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit that took a high-profile turn last week after a brewery manager said he couldn't be sure what constituted a black person without meeting them.
"We are pleased to settle this case and focus on the future," the brewery said in a statement Thursday. "Through recent discussions with Tracy, we listened, engaged in self discovery, and reached common grounds to make amends. We agreed that nobody be viewed at fault here."
Former Founders employee Tracy Evans, sued the brewery last year, saying he was fired after reporting racial discrimination that included repeated use of the "N word" and one printer being labeled "white guy printer" and another labeled as the "black guy printer."
In the lawsuit, Evans alleged he was subject to a "racist internal corporate culture" at the Detroit taproom of the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based, brewery that had enjoyed a longtime prominence throughout the Midwest.
In the statement Thursday, Evans said Founders "as a whole made some bad choices. I, as an individual made some mistakes but on this day we look to move forward."
The lawsuit trudged through the legal system for a year, but gained widespread attention after deposition testimony last week in which Evans' former supervisor said he couldn't confirm whether Barack Obama, Michael Jordan or former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick were black because he had "never met them."
That testimony, first reported by the Detroit Metro Times, pushed the lawsuit into a fresh spotlight and changed the public tenor of the lawsuit. Founders repeatedly claimed its confidence in winning the lawsuit, and saying that Evans was fired for cause.
The settlement marked a significant change in the brewery's public stance on the lawsuit.
"More importantly, this serves as an opportunity to place our full attention on the work we now have to do, as a company of more than 600 dedicated team members, to rebuild our relationships," the brewery said in the statement.
"Significantly, we are committed to moving the cause of diversity and inclusion forward for Founders. We want every employee to feel valued, respected and safe. We abhor discriminatory action of any type and believe that beer should bring people together and not divide."
In the same statement, Evans said: "I am not going to say too much here but I want the world to know the power we have when we step forward and make ourselves heard. Upon hearing us, businesses also have the power to make changes or not. I don't know what happens from here within the doors of Founders Brewing Co. I do know this; we have legal resolution and we have started looking at how all of this is affecting human lives.
"I don't know what (Founders founders) Dave and Mike (Engbers and Stevens) have planned for the future, but I know that 'seeing color' and valuing people for who they are, and their collection of experiences is the mission. Learning from our mistakes is also part of the mission. Founders as a whole made some bad choices. I, as an individual made some mistakes but on this day we look to move forward. When someone offers to change, as humans we have a few choices and I have made the choice to see what Founders does with the path that they are about to take. To those that were affected by all of this within Founders and had nothing to do with this, I apologize. To the few of those that were affected by this and you are a part of the problem, I hope you listen to what your company is about to start saying.
"Craft beer is about coming together and celebrating our differences and no dollar amount should make a company want to forget that. A company is nothing without its workers and you deserve to be valued as such and there should be a clear line of what those goals are. As there are still people working for Founders that I still love very dearly, I hope for nothing but the best for Founders in the future. I will also be moving on and continuing this fight around the world as the issues that I experienced at Founders are not just a Founders issue, they happen everywhere and I vow to continue to be a vessel to help both employers and employees become better at acknowledging, understanding and dealing with them."
