She reported race bias. Nine days later, she was suspended. Two weeks later, fired
Marriott is being sued by a Black senior manager who says her own HR team's "welcome" on day one was a racial stereotype.
Kimberly Lilly filed her complaint on May 1, 2026, in the US District Court for the Southern District of California. She brings claims for race discrimination, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination, and recordkeeping violations under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act and Labor Code.
Lilly relocated from Texas in February 2025 to take the role of Senior Manager of STAR Events & Communications at the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center in Chula Vista, which the complaint describes as a $1.3 billion property and the largest hotel ever constructed on the West Coast. She was the only Black employee on the Gaylord Pacific HR team.
According to the complaint, on Lilly's first day the Director of Learning & Development, April Chu Fryer, "welcomed" her by giving her the nickname "Lil Kim" and playing the rapper's music in front of the entire HR team. Lilly says the reference - to a Black female rapper known for an explicit, sexually provocative image - had nothing to do with her corporate role and left her feeling singled out as the only Black employee in the room.
The differential treatment, Lilly alleges, did not stop there. The filing says every other exempt manager on the team was given a private office, including one sitting empty as a storage room. Lilly was placed in a cubicle next to non-exempt staff. She says Director of HR Betty Munoz told her at different points that her role was "not as significant" as others on the team and "not as high a priority."
The complaint also alleges that during a Brand Immersion Day walkthrough, Director of Event Planning Meghan Thomas, who is White, told Lilly, "this isn't my fucking job." Lilly says her own "direct communication style" was repeatedly labeled "aggressive," "defensive," and "unprofessional," while Thomas faced no similar pushback.
For HR readers, the most pointed allegations sit inside the HR function itself. The filing says Munoz repeatedly discouraged Lilly from documenting concerns in writing, at one point claiming she could be trusted because she was "a person of color, too." Lilly says she replied: "I do not have the luxury of not protecting myself with documentation."
On April 22, 2025, Lilly formally reported race discrimination. The same day, the complaint says, she was issued a disciplinary action form citing supposed problems dating back to April 1 and warning of further discipline unless she stayed "positive, adaptable, and collaborative" at all times.
The next day, Lilly alleges, Munoz pressed her to sign a Guarantee of Fair Treatment form that, per the filing, would have routed her discrimination complaint to the very managers she had accused. The complaint says Munoz told her, "Perception is reality. You have your perception of how you see yourself and other people have theirs, and it's not professional." Lilly declined.
According to the complaint, Marriott's associate-relations review was equally flawed. Lilly alleges Area Director of Associate Relations Reem Hufnagel "expedited" the investigation, closed it in less than 48 hours, and did not request her documentary evidence or interview the witnesses she had identified. The filing says the review ran from 4:40 p.m. on April 28 to 12:02 p.m. on April 30, 2025.
On May 1, 2025, Lilly was suspended pending termination. The complaint says the second disciplinary form leaned on vague "continued concerns" about her ability to "adapt to the demands" of her role - this despite Brand Immersion Day, which the filing says proceeded successfully on April 28 with Lilly playing a central role, having just wrapped. She was terminated effective May 6, 2025, less than two weeks after she first reported discrimination.
Lilly is also pursuing a Labor Code claim alleging Marriott failed to produce her personnel file after two written requests sent in June and July 2025.
The allegations have not been tested in court. Marriott has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled on any claim.
