A Popeyes restaurant in Irvington, N.J., is being sued by a former employee for racial discrimination after claiming that he was forced to work in the kitchen because his general manager didn’t allow Black workers to be visible to customers, NJ.com reports.

While employed at the fast-food restaurant, Wesley Hammonds said that he was constantly harassed because of his race and forced to be a cook instead of interacting with customers, according to a lawsuit filed against Belleville Chicken LLC and the store’s general manager.

“During most of his employment, plaintiff was the store’s only Black employee,” the suit says.

For his two-year tenure as an employee, he was forced to work in the back of the kitchen “because they did not want a Black manager visible in front of the house,” the suit states.

Hammonds went on to accuse the general manager of paying him a low hourly rate instead of offering him a manager’s salary although he was originally hired for a management position. Also, he claims that the general manager constantly made racist comments and sent him vile text messages that caused him to feel “humiliated, belittled, and abused,” the suit read.

On one occasion in May 2022, Hammonds said that when he took his daughter to the hospital because of a medical emergency, the general manager texted, “If u don’t show up, u out.”.

When he attempted to find someone to look after his daughter so he could return to work, a supervisor allegedly said in another text: “Don’t bother showing up for me, you're already out from my store,” the suit says.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that the restaurant and the general manager violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and fostered a hostile work environment.