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Fired for too much perfume, plays "race card"
October 1, 2007 -- She wore too much Red Door, so they showed her the door.
That's the claim of a Brooklyn woman who says she was fired as a customer-service rep because she wore too much perfume.
Jorinda Sullivan, 24, of Canarsie is suing her former employer, Mindpearl, a customer-service center in Melville, L.I., for $1 million in Brooklyn federal court, claiming that co-workers' complaints about her perfume morphed into thinly veiled racial discrimination.
After complaints about one perfume, Sullivan switched to Elizabeth Arden's signature Red Door - but said she was soon hauled back into the supervisor's office for the same reason.
Later, she was allegedly attacked over her personal hygiene and asked what soap, shampoo and deodorant she used.
At that point, she decided she was being harassed because she is black and complained to the state Division of Human Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In February, she was fired because, her boss said, she'd been the subject of three customer complaints the previous week.
Vincent Gaines, chairman and CEO of Mindpearl, said, "The company denies any wrongdoing and intends to continue to vigorously contest her claims."
The really insidious thing about being accused of "racial discrimination" is that it is all but impossible to disprove. Which makes it a really handy tool that "people of color" can reach for when they find themselves in a fix, and are wrong, as per the facts of the case.