New Jersey Man Sues Walmart For $1M Over Racist Remark

CAMDEN, N.J. -- Wal-Mart is being sued for $1 million by a man who claims he was traumatized by a racist comment made over an intercom at a southern New Jersey store two years ago.

Donnell Battie, of Winslow, accuses Wal-Mart of being negligent in failing to control access to the store's intercom, which was used to broadcast an announcement ordering all black people to leave the Washington Township store. A 16-year-old boy was arrested days later and charged with harassment and bias intimidation.

Battie claims he has needed medical care due to the March 2010 comment. He says it caused him "severe and disabling emotional and psychological harm."

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Comments

[pierceearnest]

09:28 AM on 06/26/2012

Settle out of court for fourty acres and a mule!

[candcje]

01:53 AM on 05/18/2012

"Battie claims he has needed medical care due to the March 2010 comment. He says it caused him "severe and disabling emotional and psychological harm.""

That seems like a stretch. I'm sure it was disturbing and confusing in the moment, but it's not like he was physically threatened nor actually forced to leave the premises. As a Jewish person, I'm familiar with racial/ethnic bias and intimidating remarks. I've even spent time living in the deep south. I find this to be a frivolous lawsuit from a litigious-happy nation. The "trauma" experienced by this totally inappropriate behavior is not worth 7 figures. Maybe a year of free groceries from Wally World, but not a million bucks.

[BigTalk]

06:02 PM on 05/17/2012

ATTENTION WALMART SHOPPERS: Will Donnell Battie and all other opportunists please leave the country immediately!

[stormy1821]

03:31 PM on 05/17/2012

Honestly....this case will just continue for "whites" still being racist. My son is called a little white boy among other racial comments and is the only white child in his classroom...hmmmm...is this a case for suueing the school? Get real....I teach my son that we are all created equal even if we don't treat each other that way. My opinion..in this Walmart case..if you are that fragile emotionally...get someone else to do your shopping for you.

[dveo]

12:15 PM on 05/17/2012

Jews sue over dumb ish all the time and win. its about time someone else does.

[johfrewal]

07:11 PM on 05/17/2012

God is watching you and he is not happy.

[candcje]

01:56 AM on 05/18/2012

F#$^ you, Dveo. It doesn't reflect well on you when you make sweeping generalizations about an entire people.

[chicnstu49]

12:14 PM on 05/17/2012

Are You Kidding Me!

[Hypocrites are Watching]

09:40 AM on 05/17/2012

"severe and disabling emotional and psychological harm." are you SERIOUS!??!?!??!?

[Emanuel Whitley]

08:45 AM on 05/17/2012

All races and groups of people have discriminated against each other and among themselves at some point. The difference in today and the long time ago past is technology.

[Get Real247]

08:25 AM on 05/17/2012

Welcome to America. Donnell Battie needs to get a J O B. I am sure there are persons
who have experience worse on this planet.

[Tykete]

08:18 AM on 05/17/2012

Hopefully this will be thrown out of court, how ridiculous. The 16 yr old was himself African American and did it as a prank.

[dandawe]

10:55 PM on 05/16/2012

seriously??????????

[tmjsall]

09:11 PM on 05/16/2012

If I remember right...it was a black kid who made the announcement...

Either way, these incidents make it difficult for whites to understand blacks. Reminds me of the black woman who got mad at a cop for eating a banana at a MLKJR parade a few years ago. No longer a healthy snack...now racist!!!

[Emanuel Whitley]

08:37 AM on 05/17/2012

People of the same color can be racist to each other. It's not hard to understand. White people do it to each other too. Black people didn't invent the term white-trash. What do you call the separation of classes in the old European days?

All races have a long history discrimination against each other and "their own kind". No group of people on earth ever "all got along".

[tetahead]

08:45 PM on 05/16/2012

America, let's just drop a NUC on ourselves, we are so pathetic.... give this race thing a break. Do something better, join the community, serve your country. Quit taking handout...white, black, hispanic. No one cares, earn your keep and get over this madness

[poeticjustice4all]

08:33 PM on 05/16/2012

If they'd come through with the 40 acres and a mule as promised, we wouldn't be here right now.

You can't engender and engage in systemic evil and think it's all just going to disappear.

[EndRacismNow]

09:10 PM on 05/16/2012

One General made this promise to black slaves he had freed. This was not a promise or law passed by the government.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Myth_of_Forty_acres_and_a_Mule

[poeticjustice4all]

11:21 PM on 05/16/2012

Yeah. General Liar and his army of thieves and morons.

[thegrrrr8est]

12:30 PM on 05/17/2012

The systemic evil is the welfare state which has trapped millions into generation after generation of selling their souls for a government handout. A well intentioned program gone horribly, horribly wrong.

[orcharo]

06:53 PM on 05/16/2012

Man, when am I going to get my chance to sue some company over some BS!

[stepintothelight]

07:33 PM on 05/16/2012

Give it a couple of hundred years of oppression!!!

[orcharo]

07:57 PM on 05/16/2012

Give it a rest....slavery, got it! Sold by your own people, take it up with them.

[johfrewal]

07:18 PM on 05/17/2012

People who keep saying I can't make it because of Slavery or racism are just losers who don't want to work hard to get ahead.