Universal settles racism suit involving employees dressed as Gru making 'OK' sign with Black and Hispanic girls
ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Universal Orlando has settled a discrimination lawsuit with two families, who claimed employees dressed as Gru from the hit animated franchise 'Despicable Me' used a hate symbol in photos taken with their young Black and Hispanic daughters. The lawsuits were filed by Tiffiney and Richard Zinger, and Geisy Moreno and Joel Rodriguez. The parents said that their children faced the discrimination in February and March 2019. While the first incident took place in a Universal theme park, the second one occured during breakfast at a resort hotel.
According to the Daily Mail, the terms of the settlement reached by the parties has not been made public. On September 12, the case was closed. The "OK" symbol that was used while taking images with the young girls, is considered to be a racist symbol for white supremacy. The symbol is formed by forming your hand into an 'OK' shape by touching the tips of your thumb and index finger and then splaying your other fingers out. It is because the splayed fingers may appear to form the letter W, while the index finger and thumb can be seen to form the tip of a P, with those initials standing for "white power."
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The lawsuits were increased to $150,000, $75,000 each, after the familes initially sued Universal Orlando for $30,000. Their suits were filed in Orange County, Florida, where Universal is based. Although one of the employees dressed as Gru denied the allegations of racist behaviour, the suit saw them violating the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992.
In April, as per Florida Politics, the court had named Austin Walker and Joseph Saenz, both Universal employees, as the duo who was wearing the Gru costumes and making the alleged racist symbol. The victims were a six-year-old biracial girl, who was in the picture with Saenz, and the other a five-year-old Hispanic girl, who was in the picture with Walker.
The lawsuit stated, "One of the employees openly and pointedly displayed towards them a universally known and universally-used hate symbol that indicates white power. This white power hand signal has become openly and widely used to express hatred towards a segment of the population based upon a person's race, color and national origin, and it has prevalently and commonly been known as a hate symbol for years." Universal later said their employees were well-trained and denied that they had used a hate symbol. An attorney for the families, Lisa Riddle, said, "Clearly, these two guys either didn’t get trained on it, or they ignored it. Or their handlers didn’t get trained on it or ignored it."
Saenz said he was fired in September 2019. He said, "The hand gesture, commonly known as the ‘circle game’ was being played at the time with the attendant escorting Gru that day. It is also a common hand gesture in character performing as a sign of being OK."
In a similar case from July, a Baltimore family launched a $25M lawsuit against a Sesame Street-themed amusement park. During a meet-and-greet in June, the actors were accused of ignoring Black children by their families. Kennedi Burns was among the children who attended and was snubbed. Her father Quinton said, "Just looking at her face, it makes me want to cry every time I see it." The families also claimed that the performers caused emotional distress in the children by touching them without their consent.