BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – A former Hobby Lobby employee is speaking out after he claims he experienced an act of racism while on the job.
Kenneth Eaves, a former Hobby Lobby department manager says he has circumstantial evidence of racial discrimination against his former manager from the popular craft store Hobby Lobby.
“He had approved for us to work on Nazi paraphernalia and it was just like there nothing wrong with this. He said this is historical and I said there’s nothing historical about Nazi paraphernalia,” said Eaves.
Kenneth Eaves said he was fired after speaking out about the lack of black representation in the store. According to Kenneth, when he first started three years ago, over 40 percent of employees were black and now there’s only one remaining.
“Hobby Lobby is not a bad place to work, it’s a good place to work. When you have bad management in the building that’s when everything starts to take a toll and nobody wants to speak up. It’s no time for that, so I feel like I need to say something regardless if I lost my job or not I need to get it out there,” said Eaves.
Kenneth has got HR involved for his termination.
“I wrote an eight-page statement, I sent it to them. They said it will be an investigation going on, which I like, I want them to step up and do something about it. I felt like I lost my job wrongfully and I want something to be done about it,” said Eaves.
We reached out to Hobby Lobby and have not heard back from the management team regarding this situation. Kenneth Eaves says all he wants is workplace equity and policy that helps end racism.
