A Washington state man has sued the city of Seattle, alleging that taxpayer-funded diversity, equity and inclusion trainers made disparaging remarks about white people, including the claim that “all white people are cannibals.”
Joshua Diemert, who is white, worked for Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) from 2013 until resigning in 2021, according to an appellate court opinion reviewed by Our News Outlet.
The filing said Diemert had never been disciplined and consistently received satisfactory performance reviews. He alleges that his workplace experience changed after he took part in the city’s Race and Social Justice Initiative, known as RSJI.
Diemert first sued Seattle in November 2022, claiming that mandatory RSJI training led to racial discrimination against him at work.
A district court judge dismissed the claims in February 2025. On Monday, however, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court ruled that the incidents described by Diemert were “sufficiently numerous, frequent, and severe to create a triable issue,” meaning a jury could ultimately decide the case.
According to the opinion, all employees in the department were required to participate in RSJI, a program intended to “undo institutionalized racism and achieve racial equity in city government and the Seattle community.”
The initiative was first introduced in 2004 and requires employees to attend training sessions. However, the legal document said workers who decline to participate “can still receive satisfactory performance reviews.”
Diemert attended an “Undoing Institutional Racism Workshop” in November 2019. During the session, he recalled, an unnamed trainer said: “The real truth is… that all white people are cannibals,” according to the filing.
Joshua Diemert worked for the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) from 2013 until he resigned in 2021, alleging discrimination in the workplace, according to a legal filing
Diemert had not been disciplined and received satisfactory reviews during his time at HSD, but he said that changed after he participated in Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI)
The same trainer also “ranted” that it was a “lie” that Christopher Columbus traveled to the Caribbean and that the Indigenous people living there were cannibals, the appellate opinion said.
Other trainers at the session allegedly told participants that “racism is in white people’s DNA” and that “white people are like the devil,” according to the filing.
Diemert further alleged that coworkers labeled him a “white supremacist” because of comments he made during the training. The opinion did not specify what he said.
He also described an incident involving his manager, Gloria Hatcher-Mays. Diemert said she advised him not to apply for an open supervisor position because she wanted someone who was bilingual and had connections within a marginalized community, according to the document.
Hatcher-Mays, now the fire commissioner for King County Fire Protection District No. 20, ultimately filled the position with a person of color who, Diemert alleged, was inexperienced and unqualified, the opinion said.
Although he was not selected, Diemert claimed he was required to perform many of the supervisor’s duties without receiving the corresponding title or pay.
That same month, another HSD manager, who was not identified, allegedly asked Diemert: “[W]hat could you possibly offer our department…, being a straight white male?”
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Diemert also recalled that a coworker denied utility assistance to an eligible white applicant because the employee believed the applicant had “white privilege,” according to the filing.
Gloria Hatcher-Mays, Diemert’s former manager, allegedly told him not to apply for an open supervisor position because she wanted someone who was bilingual and connected to a marginalized community
When Diemert raised the issue with his coworker, he said Hatcher-Mays “berated him” and told him that “it was impossible to be racist toward white people,” the appellate opinion stated.
Diemert also mentioned another one of his superiors in the complaint filing, Shamsu Said.
Said, whom Diemert reported to at HSD, called Diemert a ‘colonist’ with ‘white privilege,’ according to the documents.
He also told Diemert that he ‘was to blame for all injustices in the United States,’ the former HSD employee said, per the opinion.
After his case was backed by the judges on Monday, Diemert’s lawyer, Laura D’Agostino, stressed that this is the kind of justice that they have been seeking for all these years.
D’Agostino, who is representing Diemert pro bono, told Our News Outlet: ‘Title VII protects every employee from a racially hostile work environment, regardless of race.
‘No one should have to endure years of racial hostility at work. The Ninth Circuit recognized that the repeated racial hostility Joshua Diemert endured deserves to be heard at trial. We look forward to returning to the district court so that Mr. Diemert can finally have his day in court.’
Now, the hostile workplace claims are headed back to US District Judge Jamal Whitehead (pictured) – the judge who threw out Diemert’s case to begin with
Although the judges ruled in his favor, they decided to toss Diemert’s equal protection claim on standing, the filing said.
They ruled that the city’s race-based groups, like the White Caucus and the African Descent Caucus, and some race-based trainings were ‘explicit racial classifications,’ according to the documents.
The court determined that Diemert was never forced into the White Caucus or barred from training, so he was not personally injured.
Now, the hostile workplace claims are headed back to US District Judge Jamal Whitehead – the judge who threw out Diemert’s case to begin with.
When approached for comment by Our News Outlet, Hatcher-Mays’s legal counsel said to direct inquiries about the matter to the attorney for the city of Seattle.
Our News Outlet contacted D’Agostino, the Seattle Human Services Department, Said, and Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans for comment.
