A Washington state man has sued the city of Seattle, alleging that taxpayer-funded diversity, equity and inclusion trainers told employees that “all white people are cannibals.”
Joshua Diemert, who is white, worked for the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) from 2013 until resigning in 2021, according to an appellate court opinion reviewed by the Daily Mail.
Diemert said he was never disciplined during his employment and consistently received satisfactory performance reviews. According to the filing, that changed after he took part in the city’s Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI).
He filed a lawsuit against the city in November 2022, claiming that RSJI training sessions led to discrimination against him in the workplace.
A district court judge dismissed Diemert’s claims in February 2025. However, on Monday, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court ruled that the incidents described in his complaint were “sufficiently numerous, frequent, and severe to create a triable issue” for a jury to consider.
All employees in the department, including Diemert, were required to participate in the RSJI program, which seeks to “undo institutionalized racism and achieve racial equity in city government and the Seattle community,” according to the opinion.
The initiative, first introduced in 2004, requires employees to attend training sessions. However, the legal document states that employees who do not participate “can still receive satisfactory performance reviews.”
Diemert attended a November 2019 session titled the “Undoing Institutional Racism Workshop.” During the training, an unnamed instructor allegedly said, “The real truth is… that all white people are cannibals,” Diemert recalled, according to the filing.
Joshua Diemert worked for the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) from 2013 until resigning in 2021, alleging in a legal filing that he faced workplace discrimination
Diemert said he was never disciplined and received satisfactory reviews while working for HSD, but alleged that his treatment changed after he participated in Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI)
The same trainer also “ranted” that it was a “lie” that Christopher Columbus traveled to the Caribbean and that the Indigenous people living there were cannibals, the appellate opinion said.
Other trainers at the session allegedly said that “racism is in white people’s DNA” and that “white people are like the devil,” according to the filing.
Diemert also alleged that coworkers labeled him a “white supremacist” because of comments he made during the training. The opinion did not specify what he said.
He further described an incident involving his manager, Gloria Hatcher-Mays. Diemert said she discouraged him from applying for an open supervisory position, telling him she wanted someone who was bilingual and had connections within a marginalized community, according to the court document.
Hatcher-Mays, now the fire commissioner for King County Fire Protection District No. 20, ultimately filled the position with a person of color who, Diemert alleged, was inexperienced and unqualified, the opinion stated.
Although he was not selected for the job, Diemert claimed he was required to carry out many of the position’s responsibilities without receiving the corresponding title or pay.
Later that month, another unnamed HSD manager allegedly asked him, “[W]hat could you possibly offer our department…, being a straight white male?” according to the documents.
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Diemert also recalled seeing a coworker deny utility assistance to an eligible white applicant. The colleague allegedly justified the decision by saying the applicant had “white privilege,” the filing said.
Gloria Hatcher-Mays, Diemert’s former manager, allegedly told him not to apply for an open supervisory position because she wanted someone who was bilingual and had connections within a marginalized community, according to the document
When Diemert raised the issue with his coworker, Hatcher-Mays allegedly “berated him” and said that “it was impossible to be racist toward white people,” according to the appellate opinion.
Diemert also mentioned another one of his superiors in the complaint filing, Shamsu Said.
Said, whom Diemert reported to at HSD, called Diemert a ‘colonist’ with ‘white privilege,’ according to the documents.
He also told Diemert that he ‘was to blame for all injustices in the United States,’ the former HSD employee said, per the opinion.
After his case was backed by the judges on Monday, Diemert’s lawyer, Laura D’Agostino, stressed that this is the kind of justice that they have been seeking for all these years.
D’Agostino, who is representing Diemert pro bono, told the Daily Mail: ‘Title VII protects every employee from a racially hostile work environment, regardless of race.
‘No one should have to endure years of racial hostility at work. The Ninth Circuit recognized that the repeated racial hostility Joshua Diemert endured deserves to be heard at trial. We look forward to returning to the district court so that Mr. Diemert can finally have his day in court.’
Now, the hostile workplace claims are headed back to US District Judge Jamal Whitehead (pictured) – the judge who threw out Diemert’s case to begin with
Although the judges ruled in his favor, they decided to toss Diemert’s equal protection claim on standing, the filing said.
They ruled that the city’s race-based groups, like the White Caucus and the African Descent Caucus, and some race-based trainings were ‘explicit racial classifications,’ according to the documents.
The court determined that Diemert was never forced into the White Caucus or barred from training, so he was not personally injured.
Now, the hostile workplace claims are headed back to US District Judge Jamal Whitehead – the judge who threw out Diemert’s case to begin with.
When approached for comment by the Daily Mail, Hatcher-Mays’s legal counsel said to direct inquiries about the matter to the attorney for the city of Seattle.
The Daily Mail contacted D’Agostino, the Seattle Human Services Department, Said, and Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans for comment.