Three black owners of a luxury box suite at Barclays Center have filed a lawsuit against the arena for $4 million, claiming that they’ve been subject to racism from staff since purchasing the box, according to the New York Post.
Glen DeFreitas, Sean Scarborough, and Jermaine Pratt, of Ludwig’s Pharmacy in Prospect Heights, purchased rights to the suite for three years at a cost of roughly $1 million this October.
The suit claims that the three are the only black luxury box owners at Barclays Center and “have been subject to adverse treatment because of their race.”
From the Post:
Pharmacy staffers Glen DeFreitas, Sean Scarborough, and Jermaine Pratt claim that they’ve been singled out for the shoddy treatment because they are black –and argue that other luxury box holders at the home of the Brooklyn Nets are treated like royalty.
Defreitas alleges that Barclays Senior Vice President of suite and ticket sales Brian Basloe approached him on several occasions to ask why he was hanging around the ritzy portions of the arena.
“Why are you always here?” he asked, according to the suit. “You’ve been coming here a lot.”
Defreitas told him that he had box rights and Basloe backed off, according to the suit. “Sometimes I have to be the bad guy,” Basloe said. “I have a background in law enforcement.
The suit adds that the trio “are often ignored by defendants staff and are forced to wait extensive periods of time for their orders to be fulfilled. Generally their orders arrive hours after they are placed, if they arrive at all.”
One example given by the Post:
On October 26th, they claimed that they ordered pizza for a guest. They waited an hour for it to arrive, were accused of not paying for it, and were then smashed with a $1,000 bill, the suit charges.
A Ludwig’s staffer would not comment on the suit.
New York Post — Black luxury box holders accuse Barclays Center of ugly racism
