A group of white employees is going to war against Revolt TV — claiming the music channel owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs canned them because they weren’t young and black, according to a new lawsuit.
Douglas Goodstein and four other Caucasian producers — who are each over age 39 — worked on the televised version of Revolt’s popular urban talk-radio program “The Breakfast Club.”
The producers say they had experience on other famous programs, such as “The Howard Stern Show,” but were treated by bosses “worse than other employees who were younger and African-American,” the Manhattan Supreme Court suit claims.
Executive Vice President Val Boreland “was always rude, condescending and dismissive towards the [team] . . . Ms. Boreland, however, treated the African-American staff in a much friendlier and respectful manner.”
Execs turned a blind eye to the behavior of “African-American employees who arrived to work intoxicated or hung over,” the suit says.
One production assistant “often came to work late, drunk and slept on the editing floor during work hours,” the suit says. Yet he “suffered no repercussions for this behavior.”
Val Boreland’s brother Anthony Boreland and the assistant director of the show allegedly said that “Caucasians harbored racism against African-Americans.”
“The animosity Mr. Boreland had towards Caucasians was clear,” the suit says.
When producer Todd Baker complained about the lack of punctuality of the show’s guests, production manager Cherisse McKenzie allegedly said “he just did not understand the ‘culture’ of the show’s guests and on-air personalities.”
The team was fired in December 2014 and replaced with inexperienced black employees, the suit claims.
“Racism directed at anyone is unacceptable,” said Matthew Blit, an attorney for the producers.
An attorney for the channel said, “These claims are without merit and have previously been dismissed by the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission].”