Former Benjamin Moore Worker Says Paint Color Names Are Racially Insensitive

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June 30, 2014 10:20 am - NewsBehavingBadly.com

Clinton Tucker, a former Benjamin Moore paint employee from New Jersey, says the company named a couple of brown colors after him, and he is suing.

…Tucker’s suit claims he was given the boot in March after he repeatedly complained about the colors Tucker Chocolate and Clinton Brown.

Tucker alleges one of the colors was a part of the company’s Williamsburg Collection, a project he helped market.

‘Despite [Tucker’s] repeated complaints and protestations to BM management about these appallingly racial color names, no action was ever taken by Benjamin Moore to change the names of these colors,’ reads the suit.

The color remained on the Benjamin Moore website as of Sunday, where its description suggests the name has its origin in Colonial Williamsburg…

The suit notes that Benjamin Moore also has a paint color called Confederate Red ‘offensively described by Benjamin [Moore] as a “timeless and enduring classic.”‘

Tucker believes that he was denied opportunities to advance because of his race ‘despite spending countless hours in the office’ and that his ‘two white, blonde-haired and blue-eyed subordinates’ remained at the company after his termination.

D.B. Hirsch
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

No responses to Former Benjamin Moore Worker Says Paint Color Names Are Racially Insensitive

  1. R.J. Carter June 30th, 2014 at 10:29 am

    Dear God, the word police are running amok.

    “Tucker Chocolate” is a color that isn’t relegated to just Benjamin Moore — unless Mr. Tucker thinks the entire furniture industry has singled him out for ridicule (and if they haven’t, they may now). And “Clinton Brown” predates Mr. Brown’s own employment with the paint company.

    I sense bitterness seeking an outlet.

    • Jim_f June 30th, 2014 at 12:12 pm

      Crazy is in again, and Alan with Ruth Bade Ginsburg are it’s leaders.

      • fahvel June 30th, 2014 at 1:04 pm

        we all know what the f is for, right? If the likes of you and rjtucker and pistol packer (in his undies?) are a result of the new merger, It’s sad.

        • R.J. Carter June 30th, 2014 at 1:29 pm

          You don’t get to force a company to change things on the basis of your singular offense at it. You may as well be named Ronald McDonald and sue the company for offending you by portraying you as a clown.

  2. Anomaly 100 June 30th, 2014 at 10:54 am

    LOL @ “Confederate Red.” I’m gonna get my paint elsewhere.

    • R.J. Carter June 30th, 2014 at 11:45 am

      Is “Union Jack” red the same thing? (I don’t know if anything else uses that precise PANTONE).

  3. Pistol-Packing June 30th, 2014 at 11:54 am

    If these names were in existence prior to his employment in 2011, I would think that his case has no merit. Anybody know how to look it up when they were created??

    • R.J. Carter June 30th, 2014 at 12:18 pm

      I know he was employed in 2011, and a blog was recommending Clinton Brown as a color scheme in an early 2010 posting.

      And Tucker Chocolate is in use at furniture companies as a color for sofa sectionals.

      Both colors are named after the same person… who lived in the 1700s and decorated his estate in these colors.

  4. Pistol-Packing June 30th, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    I wonder if they will come out with the new Washington Redskin Color ???

  5. mmaynard119 June 30th, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    The Biloxi white was a little harsh.

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