Office Prank Or Blatant Case Of Racism?

In a story you will only see only on Fox 29, reporter Joyce Evans brings us the story of Micah Newsome.

Micah, 27, is an employee at Amtrak’s Wilmington maintenance yard. Last February, he walked into the break room and his coworkers burst into laughter. He says, “I didn’t know what it was at first and then I looked to sit in my seat and it’s a full-sized robotic chimpanzee, dressed in an Amtrak work suit.” The doll, Micah recounts, we being controlled by a remote.

His reaction? “I’m just sitting there shocked, disgusted, and humiliated.”

Micah thinks that this was no joke and the “prank” was malicious.

According to a complaint with the EEOC, and an audio recording, Newsome’s co-workers then started to laugh about another incident involving a noose and another black co-worker. Newsome called Amtrak Police.

Newsome’s attorney, Angelo Cameron, tells Joyce that his client is worried for his safety. Micah is still employed by Amtrak. He is currently out on leave.

A statement from Amtrak reads, “Amtrak has a strong policy that prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind in the workplace….we immediately initiated an investigation to determine the facts, confirmed that employees may have violated our anti-discrimination police, and took disciplinary action involving those employees.”

Amtrak officials said that they could not comment on the specific allegations or what disciplinary actions were taken since the case is now before the EEOC Commission.

Fox 29 will continue to follow this story.