A Black law school graduate who spoke out publicly about a lack of diversity in the profession has filed a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against New York City, claiming he was sidelined at his job in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice for shining a light on racial inequality.

The lawsuit, filed May 6 in Manhattan federal court, alleged that Eric Garvin, a senior program manager for office’s reentry and cultural change program, had been passed over for promotions, cut out of meetings and “set up to fail” after he was quoted in a February 2017 news article as saying that “as a law graduate, I’ve grappled with the reality that law is one of the least diverse professions in the nation.”