Luxury Shoe Company Gianvito Rossi Accused Of Racism Toward Serena Williams In Lawsuit

Serena Williams is at the center of a lawsuit that alleges she was called “disgusting” by the racist managers of a luxury shoe company who refused to grant her the right to represent the brand  as white celebrities.

Former Gianvito rossi Employee Sues shoe Brand for Racism Vs Her, Serena Williams

A former employee of the Gianvito Rossi brand named Whitney Wilburn, who like the tennis star is black, filed the lawsuit.

In the suit obtained by the New York Post, Wilburn says she was hired by the company in 2015. Wilburn then claims that once she was recruited, her white boss Grace Mazzilli immediately turned “hostile to Wilburn based upon her race and age,” and also treated Williams in a discriminatory way.

“For instance, when the world famous athlete Serena Williams, via her staff, asked for a discount on her extensive purchases, Gianvito managers responded with racially disparaging comments about Ms. Williams which made it clear that the company did not want African American women to wear its shoes,” the lawsuit states.

Wilburn also said she overheard her managers describe Williams as “disgusting,” adding that they initially refused to offer the 35-year-old Grand Slam champion a discount. However, the mangers eventually succumbed to pressure from someone at Vogue magazine, and provided merely a “fraction” of the discount white athletes generally receive from Gianvito.

This is not the first time Williams has been subjected to racist comments. Shortly after it was announced she was expecting her first child with white fiancee Aleixis Ohanian, another tennis great made an insensitive joke about what her baby’s skin tone would look like. Romanian Ilie Nastase, a former world number one men’s tennis player, said of Williams’ unborn baby: “Let’s see what color it has. Chocolate with milk?” Williams responded to Nastase’s remarks in an Instagram post in which she explained her frustration with having to repeatedly deal with incidents like this as a black celebrity.

The lawsuit also explains Wilburn’s disdain for Mazzilli and the company’s tendency to hold large events only for stores whose managers were white. Wilburn says her superior “threw numerous elaborate dinner parties and social events for all boutiques managed by white employees … while never once holding an event for [her] Madison Avenue store.”

Wilburn was the only black employee in the company for 18 months, according to the lawsuit.

Mazzilli fired Wilburn “without warning or formal evaluation” in January 2017 and replaced her with “a much younger white manager,” the suit adds.

Williams won her last trophy by defeating her sister Venus in the Australian Open in January for her seventh title in Melbourne. The mother-to-be has not played a tournament since, having withdrawn from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California and the Miami Open in March due to knee injuries.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 26: Serena Williams of the United States serves in her semifinal match against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia on day 11 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 26, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)