The Antelope Valley Times

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Black social worker alleges DCFS supervisor made insensitive slavery comment

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A Black social worker is suing the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, alleging a supervisor made a racially insensitive remark about jewelry she was wearing.

“Why do you wear so many bracelets? Is it because you want to become a slave again?” Mark Wing C. Cheung, a DCFS assistant regional administrator and co-defendant in the suit, allegedly asked plaintiff Jennifer Jackson Warren.

Warren seeks unspecified damages in the suit filed Thursday. A DCFS representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Warren was hired by the DCFS sometime around February 1999 and currently works as a children social worker who finds homes for abused and neglected children, the suit states. Cheung’s alleged remark came Feb. 13, 2020, when Warren walked into an office of supervisors of the DCFS Accelerated Placement Team, to which the plaintiff was assigned, according to the suit. Cheung looked at a decorative bracelet Warren was wearing and made the alleged statement “in a loud and voluminous tone for the entire room to hear,” according to the suit.

After hearing what Cheung said, Warren “felt a tremendous sense of shame, embarrassment, and humiliation. She was left breathless and shocked into temporary silence,” the suit states. Warren looked around the room at all the other DCSF supervisors present, “but no one said a word and not a single supervisor interjected,” the suit states.

Warren tried to compose herself and she asked Cheung why he asked the question, to which he responded, “They would put bracelets on the slaves each time they were sold in order to count the times the slaves were sold,” the suit states.

Cheung then left the room, at which time another supervisor told Warren, “I don’t think he meant it like that,” the suit states. None of the supervisors apologized to Warren or reprimanded Cheung for his racist conduct, according to the suit.

“For the rest of that day, Ms. Warren was in extreme shock as she could not believe what was said to her,” the suit states. “Ms. Warren could not believe that the practice of racial profiling was occurring in her place of work, a place where she expected to feel safe from prejudice and racism.”

Warren felt sick to her stomach and in a constant state of stress and anxiety for the rest of the day, the suit states. She filed a complaint the next day to all of the supervisors present and only one apologized and also promised to send her protest to upper management, the suit states. A few days later in response to a separate complaint Warren filed, a representative from the Board of Supervisors for the county called Warren, asked her a few questions about the incident and said he would be in contact, the suit states.

Cheung later admitted he should not have made the statement and told Warren, “I was praying during my devotion time yesterday. I was struck by the spirit that I said something was hurtful to you in the other day regarding the bracelet. I was very insensitive when I said things without thinking. Please forgive my ignorance and accept my apology,” according to the suit.

Warren took four days off at the direction of her psychiatrist and she was so scarred by Cheung’s remark she does not wear the bracelet any more, even though she previously liked wearing them and the one she donned that day was given to her by her children and grandchildren and is special to her, the suit states.

Warren believes Cheung has made prior racial remarks to other employees of different ethnicities and that the DCFS did nothing about those incidents either, the suit states. Warren, like Cheung, is still employed with the county and has trouble sleeping and concentrating, the suit states. She also suffers from depression, headaches and severe stress, the suit states.

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33 comments for "Black social worker alleges DCFS supervisor made insensitive slavery comment"

  1. This is ridiculous. I have an open case with DCFS here in the AV and my worker just told my wife and I the other day “ you shouldn’t piss off the people who sign your paperwork”
    Because we mentioned the fact that she falsely wrote something that made us look bad in the report before our court date . I guess it’s the whole department who doesn’t think before they speak.

  2. “Welcome to the game show, ‘Wheel of Race Card,’ where minority contestants win millions and millions in dollars and lavish prizes, gaming their employers! Let’s see what’s behind door number one, Stu!”

  3. Some of you all are ridiculous. If the shoe was on the other foot and she asked “How was the boat ride over?,” to her Asian boss you would be posting #stopasiainhate. But for a black woman to be asked in front of a room full of co-workers and supervisors if she wanted to be a slave again, she is supposed to LIE DOWN and take it!?! Who would come to her rescue if she asked “did you bring cat fried rice” to the company luncheon?
    Black people for FAR TOO LONG have been apologetic for other people’s behavior and forgiving of people’s blatant disrespect. And while still apologetic & forgiving, it doesn’t mean there are no consequences to be had!!! If your child disobeys, you don’t love them less or not forgive just because you had to punish! For actions there are reactions. While he may not have meant to embarrass her, he did. While he may not have meant to hurt her, he did. Thus there should be restitution. Next time you are involved in a traffic accident, just remember it wasn’t on purpose, so just FORGIVE and pay for your own repair! You all don’t know her personally or what she or her family may have be subjected to due to institutionalized or systemic racism; yet you can judge how this effected her? I hope she gets compensated royally and that her supervisor learns a lesson way more valuable. The workplace is for professionalism, not jokes about something that suppressed an entire race of people.
    NO ONE HAS TO ACCEPT BS. PAY THE LADY AND LEARN TO KEEP WHAT’S IN YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!

  4. Mainstream and social media want one thing: seizing control, self-anointing themselves sole arbiter of your Founding Father’s 1st amendment.

    The principle vehicle they’re using to rationalize and impose arbitrary censorship of your 1st amendment privilege, its critical race theory narrative. The cohort social and mainstream media are manipulating, to accomplish their objective, the black community.

    • You don’t know the First Amendment, do you?

      It’s not a privilege. It’s a right, y’know from the Bill of Rights.

      “Congress shall make no law abridging….”

      The mainsteam and social media are NOT Congress. They are private businesses.

  5. Any supervisor who heard that comment should have repudiated it immediately, but give what happened and that there was a response I think the amount the DCFS is being sued for is exorbitantly excessive. We need to stop paying this kind of extortion.

  7. With the greatest of respect do I post this , but when did we become so weak minded that a comment like this almost robs one of his/her mental and physical health?
    The man was accountable for his remarks, he apologized and seems genuinely remorseful. Instead of paying out thousands of dollars in tax payers money have him take a culturally sensitive training, get the woman some well needed and deserved therapy and move on. We have all said things that have to propensity to hurt / insult others but let’s not take advantage of the system. This is why some people get a bad rap. There is a trait called integrity, let’s see this put into action instead of pursuing a law suit . If Ms Warren is as sensitive as this article made her out to be then how will she stand the stress of an upcoming court case? She could well be a basket case but the end result may enough for her to garnish the strength to push on meantime this man is left with the the thoughts that even with a genuine apology, nothing matters when there is an agenda at stake . Do the right thing , take the high road , drop the lawsuit and accept the apology .

    • You must also be white. Black people are tired of these kinds of remarks. But you would not understand that. Why let someone get away with slavery remarks. Please it’s the county’s responsibility to stop this action and they did nothing. Hence that is why the county is being sued. Not the individual.

      • I can tell you I have been a victim of racism from this lady and many other can join me. She always says I’ll sue the county again, and I guess she did. She is not seeking justice she just wants more money. I wish the county was tougher on these issues because if he gets fired so should she as she has been racist to everyone that is not black.

        • Well, bring that up in the meeting. Why are you so silent, you too may be part of the problem

        • Look here Maria,
          You sound stupid. You would make a public statement in this forum about her inflicting racism on you. BUT, you wouldn’t report that to your boss? I hope you get fired, because you are a mandated reporter and if this IS true, then YOU are to blame for others being subject to her so called racism. So, in fact, this sounds to me like YOU, Ms. Maria, have a problem with Ms. Jackson Warren personally because you are indicating this happened to everyone not black. If in fact this were true then why didn’t you report it??? I’ll tell you why, because you are a LIE! Now if you want to have your voice heard on this platform come with receipts; otherwise you mentioning her suing , just sounds like you are mad that you don’t have an opportunity to do it yourself!

  8. A lesson they never forgot, it was T.E. Lawrence who taught the Arabs, the way to get what they want is, blowing up trains, taking no prisoners, chopping off peoples’ heads. A lesson they never forgot, it was the mainstream media who taught the black community, play the race card to get what they want.

  9. All of us have been offended at some point in time. Every one of us has had our feelings hurt. It’s certainly not uncommon for humans to UNINTENTIONALLY offend someone else – we’ve all done it. But lawyering up because someone hurt your feelings AND apologized??? Pathetic. Such a WASTE of taxpayer dollers to feed your greed! Shame on you, Jennifer Jackson Warren! If you cannot sleep, you have headaches and can’t focus at work, then you need to see a physician because it sure wasn’t caused by someone’s thoughtless-and-later-recanted remark! You are ridiculous. Additionally, though the comment RESULTED in you choosing to feel embarrassed, it did not CAUSE your choice of an interpretation – nobody can MAKE you feel any sort of way. We all choose our responses to our environment!! I know Mr. Wing C. Cheung, and I KNOW he knew not what he said, and he in NO way meant to hurt anyone – that is why he apologized and acknowledged his wrongdoing! If that’s not enough for you, and you want to act like a Karen throwing a tantrum because, well, life – it shows you’re someone who will manipulate and abuse our legal system just to chase the almighty dollar – and I find it appalling. We all make mistakes, Your Majesty.

    • At some point, people must learn not to say stupid things to other people. If you don’t have good things to say don’t say it all. What if you don’t know him, what would you say about him. It’s pathetic to even think this way. unintentional or intentional does not matter. a 5 years old child makes unintentional comments. A grown-up person knows what he’s talking about. Get it in there!

    • I can’t help but believe that your knowledge of Mr. Wing C. Cheung is what allows your position to be such that it is. What amazes me about what I just read is, if MS. Jennifer Jackson Warren (surely we should give her the same respect of a prefix) had uttered anything similiar, her carreer as a social worker would have ended at that very moment.
      UNINTENTIONAL does not excuse wrong. Who are you that you can truly believe apologies make it all okay?
      Any living human being over the age of 30 is well aware of the Civil Rights movement and what it means to Black people. Asking a Black woman if she wants to ba a slave again and further making an inference to determining how many times they had been sold all while talking about HER bracelets is NOT okay! I’m sure it did cause her embarrassment and hurt. It also exposed an insensitivity that should NEVER exist in the workplace and definitely not from someone holding the title of Assistant Regional Administrator! To whom much is given, much is required. If Mr. Cheung has held this position without the proper training to determine such remarks are offensive, hurting and could possibly trigger uncomfortable emotions in other individuals in the workplace, then maybe he too should be seeking compensation for wrong doing from DCFS as the employer responsible for making certain that such training takes place. Bottom line, he should’ve known better. This shouldnt be a possibility!
      What you consider pathetic, I consider heroic. Many others would not have chosen to suppress their emotions in the moment. Those very individuals would have been labeled: angry black women, thugs, or who knows what else. But because this women, who has built a 20+ year career with DCFS, chose to lawyer up, versus fighting back with her voice or her fist, she’s pathetic? Way to bash the victim, Karen!
      No one has the right to tell another human being how they have or have not been affected by their experiences. Wonderful for you that anyone can say anything to you and your tough skin will hold you together like the untouchable warrior you are! But this Ms. Jennifer Jackson Warren was obviously affected in a negative way, and all she did was go to work.
      I believe her civil rights were violated and I hope she gets multi-millions of OUR tax paying dollars *including her 20+ years worth*

  10. … the mainstream media, lightning quick on the draw, always up with the first excuse, to play the race card. Shoot first, ask questions later –

    • When they can’t get what they want? When they don’t get their way? When caught red-handed, their hands in the cookie jar? Why not play the race card? What’s to lose, striking up an unfair advantage?

      • It’s not playing the race card. The words of race to be precise slavery remarks were made. That cuts deep for black people. No one should have to insure that language and especially among their peers.

      • Really?? Is that what Kayleigh told you over there on Fox with the Hannity show last night you are parroting?? I saw her on there saying the media can just lie and get away with it. My jaw dropped to the floor. That’s rich. Lol.

    • Our number one problem here in America: the yellow press.

      Not merely slanting current events, but outright lying, blatant omissions, pandering to the black community, the mainstream media seeks to wipe out our 1st and 2nd amendment guarantee, and destroy our schools playing the race card, pushing their critical race theory narrative.

      Long gone, wiped out in the 50s and 60s, America doesn’t have a problem with systemic racism. America’s problem, mental health.

      Pushing critical race theory to its threshold, the mainstream media’s endgame, sequestering exclusive rights to your Founding Father 1st amendment guarantee.

  11. So what about Coke Cola having race training telling Whites how to be Less White. Should be major lawsuit.

  12. We’ve all been guilty of saying things without thinking. “Please forgive my ignorance and accept my apology.” This we should do more often instead of suing.

  14. Lol. Somebody is looking to retire with a little extra cash in her pocket. So, the tax payers are going to settle this one for about 500k out of court.