Minorities on Pandemic Frontlines Take Race Bias Claims to Court

Christian Smalls says in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, he and dozens of workers of color at an Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island weren’t able to social distance and continued to work close together even after a co-worker contracted the coronavirus.

Smalls, who was fired from Amazon in March, says in a class action filed earlier this month in a federal court in New York that temperatures weren’t checked, the facilities weren’t deeply cleaned and sanitized, and the workers weren’t given proper personal protective equipment.

Smalls, who is Black, claims that the lack of safety measures put ...