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Justin Timberlake Sued and Called Racist By Former Tour Manager


12-18-03 Keavin
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'Pop singer Justin Timberlake is being sued by his former tour manager to the tune of $9.6 million. Ibrahim Duarte accuses the pop star of racial abuse and using racial slurs. 

IMDB.com reports that Duarte is accusing not only Timberlake of making racist comments and taking discriminatory actions but also other members of �NSYNC, who are also named in the suit along with their holding companies, Zeeks Inc., Skeez LLC and 'NSYNC Inc. 

Duarte filed the suit back on November 25 in the New York State Supreme Court. He claims that he was fired from his job for what his attorney described to MTV news as racial reasons. 

Duarte has made quite a few allegations of racism against the group. He accuses Timberlake of once telling him, "You n------ ain't worth s---."

He also claims that the black employees were increasingly the targets of racial slurs from the group. That includes Lance Bass, who Duarte accused of making him ride in a separate tour bus because Bass was ashamed of having a black tour manager. He also accused JC Chasez of shouting, "You black guys always f--- up." 

�After four years of building them into one of the hottest bands in the world, they treated me less than human," Duarte claims. "The popularity and money went to their heads and their true feelings about having a black front man became apparent. I endured their constant racial slurs, jokes and belittling comments to make it work. But they just threw me to the curb like yesterday's trash." 

Duarte also claims that the group�s choreographer, a security guard and sound engineer, all black men were also the subject of racial comments. 

Duarte was the tour manager for the group on their �No Strings Attached� tour from Jan. 1999 to December of 2000. He has worked in the music industry for 25-years and says that in that time he has �never been treated like this by any other artist.� 

The crux of his lawsuit claims that he was fired from the job with �NSYNC and replaced by a white man with "significantly less experience." 

This is not the first lawsuit he has filed against the group. According to MTV, he filed a suit in June of 2002 for approximately $155,000 in compensation he says the group still owed him from his stint as tour-manager. 

Representatives from the NSYNC camp have not yet commented on the suit or Duarte�s allegations. 

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