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<h6><span style="color:#0d0101;"><strong>Axed Gianvito Rossi worker filed lawsuit Thursday said company gave Serena Williams a smaller discount on shoes than white clients in a </strong></span></h6>
<h6 id="ra-headline"><span style="color:#0d0101;"><strong>Gianvito Rossi managers called Serena Williams &#8220;disgusting&#8221; and initially refused to offer any discount</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#0d0101;"><strong>Only after a &#8220;contact&#8221; at Vogue magazine intervened did the store grant the discount </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#0d0101;"><strong>Hired to oversee Rossi&#8217;s boutique business,Whitney Wilburn, alleges she was marginalized because of the racism of the company&#8217;s global retail director, Grace Mazzilli </strong></span></h6>
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<h6><img class="alignnone wp-image-186073" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/serena-williams11.png" alt="Serena Williams11.png" width="617" height="626" /><br />
<strong>World No 1 female tennis player Serena Williams apparently is not immune from racist shop keepers</strong></h6>
<p>Racist managers at the high-end shoe designer Gianvito Rossi gave tennis superstar Serena Williams a smaller discount than ones granted white celebrities because the company does not want black women wearing its merchandise, a former employee alleges in a new suit.<br />
Whitney Wilburn, 46, who was hired to oversee Rossi&#8217;s boutique business, alleges in a suit filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court that she was marginalized and eventually fired because of the racism of Grace Mazzilli, the company&#8217;s global retail director.<br />
As an example of the alleged racism, Wilburn points to managers&#8217; reaction when Williams&#8217; staff asked for a discount on her &#8220;extensive purchases,&#8221; papers read.</p>
<h6><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-186077" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/serena-williams1.jpg" alt="Serena Williams1.jpg" width="1200" height="876" /><strong>Serena debuted her baby bump at last month&#8217;s Ney York Met Gala</strong></h6>
<p>&#8220;Gianvito Rossi managers responded with racially disparaging comments about Ms. Williams which made it clear that the company did not want African-American women to wear its shoes,&#8221; according to the suit.<br />
The managers called Williams &#8220;disgusting&#8221; and initially refused to offer any discount, papers read. Only after a &#8220;contact&#8221; at Vogue magazine intervened did the store grant the discount.<br />
&#8220;They offered only a fraction of the discount that white celebrities typically receive,&#8221; papers read.<br />
Whitney Wilburn, who was hired to oversee Rossi&#8217;s boutique business, alleges in a suit filed Thursday that she was marginalized because of the racism of Grace Mazzilli, the company&#8217;s global retail director.</p>
<h6 class="ra-caption"><img class="alignnone wp-image-186075" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/pregnant-serena-williams-at-the-met-gala-night-accompanied-by-her-fiance-alexis-ohanian5.png" alt="Pregnant Serena Williams at the Met Gala night accompanied by her fiance Alexis Ohanian5.png" width="649" height="935" />Serena and fiancee, Reddit co-founder Alex Ohanian at the Met Gala</h6>
<h6 class="ra-caption"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-186079" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/serena-williams-and-carol-wozniacki.png" alt="Serena Williams and Carol Wozniacki.png" width="721" height="727" /><strong>Serena Williams and pal, fellow tennis pro Caroline Woznaicki</strong></h6>
<h6 class="ra-module h"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-186098" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/gianvito-rossi-and-daughter-sofia.jpg" alt="Gianvito Rossi and daughter Sofia.jpg" width="683" height="1085" /><strong>Designer Gianvito Rossi and his daughter, Sofia</strong></h6>
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<div class="ra-module h">Wilburn, 46, alleges that Mazzilli reduced her responsibilities, sabotaged her work and eventually fired in January &#8220;without rational basis.&#8221; She&#8217;d been on the job less than two years.</div>
<article id="ra-body">&#8220;White employees were not subject to such treatment,&#8221; the suit says.<br />
Whitney Wilburn, who is black, says she was recruited to work for Gianvito Rossi in 2015 from “another Madison Avenue fashion house” where she’d been for five years.<br />
But once she was hired to run the Manhattan boutique, her boss, Grace Mazzilli, was immediately “hostile to Wilburn based upon her race and age,” the suit alleges.</p>
<h6><img class="alignnone wp-image-186115" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/grace-mazzilli1.png" alt="Grace Mazzilli1.png" width="698" height="895" /><br />
<strong>Grace Mazzilli, the Gianvito Rossi global retail director, allegedly called Serena Williams &#8216;disgusting&#8217; and refused to give her a discount on her purchases</strong></h6>
<p>Wilburn claims in the Manhattan civil suit that her “experience with Mazzilli left no doubt about Mazzilli’s racial animosity toward African Americans.” was typefied by the way and manner she disaparaged world famous athlete Serena Williams. Mazilli&#8217;s racially disparaging comments about Ms. Williams which made it clear that the company did not want African American women to wear its shoes,” the suit says.<br />
Wilburn also says Mazzilli, who is white, also “threw numerous elaborate dinner parties and social events for all boutiques managed by white employees … while never once holding an event for [her] Madison Avenue store.”<br />
Wilburn was the only black employee in the company for a year-and-a-half, and when Mazzilli fired her “without warning or formal evaluation” in January 2017, she replaced her with a “much younger white manager,” the suit says.</p>
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Gianvito Rossi managers called Serena Williams “disgusting”! Company does not want black women wearing its merchandise – axed employee in lawsuit
