Ninth Circuit will decide whether Joshua Diemert will have his day in court
Joshua Diemert never intended to be the face of a lawsuit. When he began working for Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) in 2013, he committed himself to a narrow goal: help Seattle’s vulnerable residents find the programs they needed to get back on their feet.
Joshua excelled as a program intake representative. He was in high demand across several city departments and even won an award for completing impressive work outside the scope of his role. Then Joshua was told the values that had earned him such accolades—determination, accountability, resilience—were in fact “tools of white supremacy.”
This was around the time the City’s Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI)—a sweeping workplace program that demanded employees “lead with race”—began to gain steam. Its stated goal was to dismantle what City leaders called “institutional racism” in local government and build a more equitable city for all residents. But in sorting its employees by race instead of performance, the program created and reinforced the very issue it claimed to oppose: a workplace where people were judged by their skin color rather than their character or contributions.
The City began to mandate race-segregated sessions. It condemned colorblindness as “racial evasion.” It forced employees to attend trainings where they were told racism is “in white people’s DNA.”
“I was told that I was a racist, not because of anything I had done but because they say that all white people are born racist, not dependent on your actions, and that I needed to undo my whiteness,” Joshua said.
A manager once asked him, “What could a cis white male possibly offer our department?”
Joshua even witnessed a colleague deny benefits to eligible residents solely because they were white.
“This training tells them to do it, so I don’t blame her, if that makes sense,” Joshua generously remarked. “She’s only doing what the City of Seattle is telling her.”
He reported the incident to his manager, who, in return, told him that it was impossible for “white people” to experience discrimination.
But despite the City’s attempts to silence him, Joshua spoke out throughout his eight years with the City—at a great personal cost.
Co-workers slandered him as racist and supervisors dismissed his complaints as “white privilege.” His health even took a toll, with a doctor eventually recommending that his workplace excuse him from its “cultural sensitivity training” classes for a few months to relieve some of his stress—a request the department denied.
For years, Joshua wasn’t believed—not even by his own circle. That changed when Pacific Legal Foundation took his case at no cost, giving him an ally in a fight he’d long faced alone.
Joshua filed suit against the City of Seattle in November 2022, alleging that the City’s Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) constituted an official policy that encouraged and resulted in unlawful workplace discrimination. The complaint points to racially targeted trainings, racially segregated affinity groups, and race-based programming as examples of how that policy was implemented, in violation of Title VII and the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee.
In February 2025, a district court dismissed Joshua’s claims at the summary judgment stage, concluding that what he experienced did not rise to the level of an unlawful hostile work environment. In doing so, the court overlooked key evidence, sided with the other party when the facts were still in dispute, and failed to follow the rules meant to ensure cases like this are decided fairly before trial. Joshua appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which will hear oral arguments on April 23. Joshua no longer works for the City; he resigned in 2021 and relocated his family to East Texas. But leaving Seattle didn’t diminish his resolve. Thursday’s oral argument marks a turning point in the battle, not just for Joshua’s vindication but for every worker who has ever been told equality under the law has racial caveats.
