Vice President Kamala Harris made a campaign stop in Pennsylvania over the weekend at a convenience store that the Biden-Harris administration sued in April for allegedly having racist hiring policies.
Harris, along with running mate Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, stopped by a Sheetz convenience store in western Pennsylvania on Sunday while on a short tour of the crucial swing state ahead of the start of the Democratic National Convention. The Biden-Harris administration is suing the chain for allegedly discriminating on the basis of race by screening potential hires for criminal backgrounds.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an independent government agency, filed a lawsuit against Sheetz and two of its subsidiaries in April, claiming that the stores’ routine criminal background checks for possible hires disproportionately impact minorities and are discriminatory, according to The Associated Press. Sheetz has denied that it discriminates and stated that racial discrimination is intolerable in its business.
The federal government said in its lawsuit that black job applicants who failed the background checks were denied employment at Sheetz 14.5% of the time, multiracial applicants were rejected 13% of the time and Native Americans faced a rejection rate of 13%, compared to the rate of less than 8% encountered by white applicants who were denied employment at Sheetz, according to the AP.
While inside the store on Sunday, Harris and Walz picked out snacks to enjoy on the road as they continued their tour of Pennsylvania. Harris appears to have a vulnerability for Doritos, the snack she picked inside the Sheetz, as she also binged on the cheesy chips in dismay after former President Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, according to a campaign email.
