Groups demand action from Kansas City VA on ‘disturbing’ number of discrimination claims
Leaders from several community organizations held a news conference outside the Kansas City Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center Wednesday and presented a letter, which includes 14 demands regarding claims of racial discrimination at the hospital. When they tried to deliver the letter to Veteran’s Affairs leadership, they were told the director, David Isaacks, was not available.
The organizations, which included the Kansas City chapter of the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Kansas City, and the Concerned Clergy Coalition, attempted to hand a letter demanding an investigation into the handling of discrimination claims and the end to retaliation against employees. The letter meant to be delivered to the secretary of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the director of the medical center Wednesday afternoon.
In the middle of the news conference, both the organizers and a reporter and photographer from The Star were asked to leave the property. Spokesperson Theresa DiMaggio said it was federal facility and filming was not allowed.
“Please take your camera and exit the property,” DiMaggio told The Star photographer as she was packing up her equipment. “This is our chief of police and I don’t want to have to ask you again.”
She did not respond to requests for comment later Wednesday afternoon.
“(I’m) extremely disappointed that one, we were treated so harshly by whoever the public relations person was and then two, that we weren’t able to give our demands to Mr. Isaacks personally,” said the Rev. Michael Brooks, with the Concerned Coalition and the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity.
Outside the entrance, a handful of protesters with the Reale Justice Network gathered, some carrying signs.
The Rev. Rodney Williams, president of the Kansas City chapter of the NAACP, said during the news conference that the number of discrimination claims his office has received is “disturbing” and “alarming.”
The Rev. Vernon Howard, president of the local SCLC chapter, said the demands include the end of retaliation against employees with the “strength and courage to stand up for themselves.”
Howard said that when they tried to deliver the letter, they were greeted first by security and then by a woman who said she was Isaacks’ assistant. She invited them to give the demands to her. Howard said that because they had been “so impeded from communicating” with Isaacks they were determined to see him “face to face” to present the demands to him directly.
On Thursday, Howard said, Williams is going to call to set an appointment with Isaacks.
“We are hoping that there will be a genuine authentic response,” Howard said. “We have every right to ask and demand for a meeting with Mr. Isaacks who is employed by us. It is the people’s property and he is the people’s employee.”
The employees want a “serious, total, independent review,” of the agency, according to a news release issued Wednesday by an attorney representing some of those involved.
Attorney Rebecca Randles said in the release that “mean-spirited epithets” have been used, including the n-word, monkeys and Aunt Jemima. Randles said the mistreatment also takes multiple forms, including Black employees being passed over for promotions.
The medical center is also facing at least two lawsuits.
“We hope he’ll work with sensitivity, empathy and integrity to create a safe environment for African Americans,” Williams said in a news release.
A statement previously issued by a VA spokesman in response to another race discrimination lawsuit filed in February said the center doesn’t “tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind,” and is “proud of its diverse and inclusive culture.”
Last month, Charmayne “Charlie” Brown spoke at a press conference and alleged she had been racially discriminated against during her 17 years at the Kansas City VA.
Brown said she wanted to speak out so others don’t have to experience what she went through.
She is part of a group of about 50 Black current and former employees who have experienced racial discrimination at the Kansas City VA and are making a stand. Over the last three months, other employees have told The Star their stories, several asking that their names not be used for fear of retaliation. But they all described one thing: systemic discrimination against Black employees.
One woman said that some staff members would start to make monkey noises when they would see a Black employee.
Another woman ultimately resigned after going to work caused her to experience chest pains, nausea and vomiting.
“Now I’m watching my children go through what I went through and what my grandma went through,” Brown said at the press conference. “The humiliation, the name calling, the degrading things that have been done to us — enough is enough.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 5:29 PM.
