A black manager at a Long Island T.G.I. Friday’s alleges that a racist boss warned him in 2008 not to vote for Barack Obama — and fired him after he did.
In a federal discrimination lawsuit, Michael Verzillo says regional manager Tanya Edwards, who is white, asked him in September 2008 whom he’d for.
When he replied that he might vote for Obama, Edwards, 50, said the Bible predicted “a black Muslim will take power and destroy the world,” said Verzillo, 39, who filed the suit against Edwards and the national eatery chain last week.
“She actually called me up on Election Day and said, ‘Are you going to vote?’ I said yes and she asked who I was voting for,’’ he said.
“Reluctantly, I told her Obama, and again she told me that I was making a big mistake,” Verzillo added.
After Obama won, she began a campaign against Verzillo and criticized his performance, he said.
Verzillo, a 15-year company worker, said he was falsely charged with changing expiration dates on food and leaving early during a snowstorm.
“She sent me home two days before Christmas,’’ said Verzillo, and then fired him by phone.
T.G.I. Friday’s did not immediately respond to requests for comment.