This is an interesting twist in that H&M discrimination case that made headlines a few months back. In September, Frannie Richards filed a lawsuit against clothing store H&M for alleged discrimination. She was shopping at one of the Chicago stores an encountered an employee who subjected her to racial and sexual slurs, calling her a "mail-order bride" and making fun of her ability to understand English (she speaks perfect English): h&m: the new a&f?
Here's the weird part. H&M has chosen Filipino American lawyer Joseph J. Centeno to represent their case: Fil-Am vs. Fil-Am in H&M dispute. Whaaaat?
Centeno, a partner with the firm Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP in Philadelphia, is ironically also Commissioner to the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission... in charge of enforcing anti-discrimination ordinances.
While Centeno is prohibited from discussing the specifics of the case, as the discrimination lawsuit is still currently ongoing, he stresses that although the case against H&M was filed by a Filipino American and he himself is a Filipino American, he is "personally committed to anti-discrimination." That's funny, because I thought what happened here sounded indeed like discrimination.
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