PLEASANTON — A business owner of a construction company is being sued by an employee for racial discrimination and harassment following impersonations of President Donald Trump and displays of the Confederate flag.

The lawsuit filed by Tishay Wright, a former employee of Southland Construction Management Inc., claims the CEO of the company, Kenneth Hayden, and his wife, Anita Hayden, its CFO, made unwanted racist comments and decorated the office with photographs of Trump and Confederate flags stating “The Southland shall rise again.”

Kenneth Hayden dressed as the president while Anita Hayden dressed as an apparent Trump supporter, with a Confederate flag-themed purse over her shoulder, and the two took pictures, the lawsuit states. The photos were provided to the media.

The purse was given to Wright, who is black, during the holidays as a Christmas gift during a company party, along with photos of the company owners in costume, according to Wright’s San Francisco attorney, Chris Dolan.

“No one should be treated this way in America in the year 2017. This is not Alabama in the 1940’s. This country is going backwards and it has to stop,” Wright said in a news release.

Wright was a project administrator for the company from June 2015 until March 9, 2017.

“This is just a sign of how people feel empowered by our current president, and his racist and sexist statements about women and minorities, to blatantly harass and discriminate against others,” Dolan said. “The message couldn’t be any clearer: ‘I stand with Trump and I’m racist. If you don’t like it, then get out of my business and out of my country.’ ”

In addition to the dress-up incident, Wright claims in her lawsuit that a hostile work environment existed when the couple made racist comments toward others, including “We’ll just make the Mexicans do it,” according to the lawsuit.

Southland officials were not immediately available for comment on Thursday.

Their website has the motto “Experience and integrity you can trust.” The company’s mission statement is “To serve the construction needs of commercial, retail, and industrial businesses with integrity, quality and accountability, while meeting budgets and timelines in order to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and restore honesty to the marketplace.”

The company was founded in Pleasanton in 2000.

Wright said she “became sick to her stomach and felt utter shock” when she unwrapped the Christmas gift handed to her by her boss, Kenneth Hayden — a Confederate flag-themed rhinestone purse.

Wright’s “shock and horror over the purse and pictures depicting racist symbolism and a hostile potential violent message caused her to become increasingly nauseous and anxiety ridden,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit describes a series of retaliation events following the Christmas gift that included removing Wright from a major construction project she was working on in Santa Cruz, and eventually she was removed from her job in March.

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