A former employee at Soho House Nashville has filed suit against the club, alleging racial discrimination, retaliation and unlawful wage practices while he was employed there as a membership manager. Jonathan Fields, the former employee, alleges in the suit that “Soho House was a work environment riddled with bias and discriminatory acts” and “maintained a culture that was overtly biased against black members, guests, and artists.”
Fields, who is Black, says he experienced racist treatment from white Soho House staff and patrons, who called him “homie” or the N-word, or responded to work-related comments by saying, “For shizzle my nizzle.” He says management targeted him with “an abundance of concocted criticisms and accusations” related to comping meals for dissatisfied guests, drinking on the job and not following kitchen protocols while white members of management were allowed to engage in “the same — and substantially worse — alleged actions.”
Fields says he was fired under false pretenses and is seeking $500,000 in damages. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee and alleges violations of the Tennessee Human Rights Act and the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act.
The Scene reached out to Fields’ attorney, Brian C. Winfrey, and to Soho House for comment, but did not receive responses before publication.
According to the suit, Fields was a membership manager responsible for helping attract members to the exclusive Wedgewood-Houston club. Fields says he was “directly responsible” for bringing 250 new members to the club and attracting well-known entertainment personalities like Kirk Franklin, Wale and Too $hort as visitors. He also says he was partially responsible for running the club’s social media accounts but did not receive additional pay for this work.
Fields says he was held “personally accountable” for the actions of Black patrons, including when Black patrons smoked marijuana in the club, walked out of the club or failed to put a credit card on file. He says he was criticized for “any mistake made by a black employee, while white managers were not similarly criticized for mistakes of white employees.”
Fields says he filed formal complaints with management many times during his employment — the duration of which is not made clear in the filing — but that the company and its HR department made “no legitimate effort to investigate, prevent, or correct the conditions complained of by Plaintiff on behalf of himself, black employees, guests, artists, talent or vendors.” In addition to discrimination he says he personally experienced, Fields says Black performers and patrons at the club regularly received less pay, worse service and fewer perks while performing at or visiting the club.
Fields says he was fired for making gospel artist Kirk Franklin a salad, providing a free meal for Franklin and his party after a negative experience at Soho House, having a drink on the job and ordering $15 of food while working. He says the reasons for his firing were “false, pretextual, and concocted,” and says white co-workers engaged in the same behavior without reprimand.
