An African-American, legally blind, female nuclear engineer has filed suit against the U.S. Navy for discrimination that she said has been ongoing for nearly a decade.
Vena Ward, an alumna of Tuskegee University, said she began training at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard through summer internships in 2005 and was hired after she graduated.
She said she immediately experienced harassment and discrimination about her vision, her race and her gender.
The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard confirms Ward filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint, but a national office said they could not comment on a pending lawsuit.
Ward said, “Co-workers will ask me questions like, ‘Can you see me right now?’ and ‘How many fingers am I holding up?’”
Ward uses special software and a device to read small print but is otherwise capable of doing all functions of her job. She designs technology that tests naval equipment.
She said colleagues engaged her in conversations about “how African Americans are a stress and strain on the economy because most of them are on socialist programs.”
She said she was also asked why African-American men always wear hats three sizes too big.
“Unfortunately I don’t know any black men who wear their hats three sizes too big. So that’s yet again another question I could not answer,” Ward said.
She also said she and the few other women in the department were always asked to organize the potlucks, and that she was told to work there, she would need to put on her “big girl panties.”
Ward said she continually had conversations about these incidents with her supervisors without any change.
Then more recently, she said a co-worker used the ‘n’ word in her presence.
“The employee went on to defend the use of the word,” she said.
Ward said she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee in 2014. After a year of not seeing much progress, she looked to an attorney for help.
Jacob Downs, a veteran, took on the case.
“These are federal laws she is bringing her claims under, and if anybody should be complying with them, I think it’s the federal government,” Downs said.
Downs said after Ward filed the complaint, her co-workers became even more hostile. She said she was told she should perhaps look for a different job.
Ward told KIRO 7 it’s not easy finding a different job with her vision, and that she is proud to work for the U.S. Navy, since she comes from a family of people who have served in different branches of the armed forces.
“I should not have to change who I am or act like something that I’m not to do a job that I’m qualified to do,” Ward said.
KIRO
