Actor and singer Tyrese Gibson has filed a lawsuit seeking one million dollars from Home Depot, claiming he was racially profiled during a visit to the West Hills, California, location.
The 44-year-old Fast and Furious star claims he “experienced outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling” and is seeking the million-dollar payout which, he says, represents the amount of money he has spent at Home Depot over his lifetime, according to People magazine.
Gibson also wants the courts to issue a “a declaratory judgment ” finding that Home Depot has violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.
Gibson claims that on Feb. 11 he and two friends went to the West Hills location, but when too many people began noticing him as the Fast and Furious actor, he went to the cashier and told her that his friends could make their purchases with his credit card. And he then went to wait in the car.
But when the two companions, Mara and Hernandez, tried to use the card, Gibson says the cashier refused to allow the purchase. Gibson returned to the store to assure the cashier that it was okay, but he says she would not even complete the purchase with him standing there.
Gibson posted a video of him confronting a store manager over the incident, first over FaceTime and then in-person. “This feels like racism, and I don’t play the race card,” he asserts during the conversation (in 2015, he accused “racist white radio stations” of refusing to play his music).
“The cashier gave no reasonable explanation other than repeating ‘store policy’ and demanded to see a form of identification,” the court filing alleges. “The manager refused to speak with Gibson in person. It was only after significant heated discussion with the cashier that Gibson was finally able to complete the transaction.”
The lawsuit adds, the store’s cashier and manager “purposely interfered with and refused to process the transaction based on their groundless suspicion of Gibson, Mora and Hernandez arising from their skin color, and in the case of Mora and Hernandez, their national origin.”
Gibson claims that Home Depot has “refused to take any responsibility,” but the company says the opposite.
“We value Mr. Gibson as a customer, and in the months since this happened, we’ve reached out to him and his attorneys several times to try to resolve his concerns,” Home Depot said in a statement. “We will continue to do so.”
The company also said, “Diversity and respect for all people are core to who we are, and we do not tolerate discrimination in any form.”
The actor insists that he is “taking a stand.”
“Gibson, Mora and Hernandez are taking a stand against The Home Depot to hold it accountable,” the lawsuit says. “The company needs to understand that there are consequences for discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling.”
Gibson made news in other comments in June when he blasted Hollywood for “trying to normalize the devil” in the wake of “non-binary” singer Sam Smith’s Grammy Awards segment in which he performed a Satan-themed rendition of his single “Unholy.”
“I just feel like we’re in competition right now because they are trying to normalize the devil. The devil is on the main stage at award shows and in every video — signs and symbols,” Gibson said during an appearance meant to advertise his appearance in the most recent Fast and Furious film.
“And I say, you know what? We need to stop treating our relationship with Jesus like the little buddy that you talk to before you go to bed at night, and not be more vocal about all the things that God means to us and all of the things that God has brought us through,” he added.
He concluded, saying, “They goin’ above and beyond to promote the devil and it’s pissing me off. The devil worshippers used to be real secretive — going down in the basement, the secret world. Now they’re just…”
Back in 2020, Gibson lamented the fact that young black men are all too often being raised with “no examples what being a husband or father is,” and he included himself in that category as he spoke of his second divorce.
“I’ve wrestled with this question… How can we naturally know how to BE something we were never raised by?” he asked of the role of proper fathers and husbands.
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