Black Porn Star Sues Director After White Co-Star Calls Him The N-Word

A black adult film star is suing his former director after a white co-star called him the N-word while filming a scene.

Maurice McKnight, also known by his stage name “Moe the Monster,” filed a lawsuit on Thursday in Los Angeles against DF Productions, Inc. and director James Joseph Camp III, the New York Daily News reports. McKnight’s suit alleges that the hate speech was used while filming on July 12, 2017, despite the fact that McKnight “made it very clear that he would not allow this racial slur to be used” after Camp asked him on two separate occasions. McKnight is suing for damages, citing fraud through deceit, negligent misrepresentation, negligent hiring/retention/supervision, racial harassment, and failure to prevent racial harassment.

Camp and Rosenberg have not publicly commented yet.

McKnight said that Camp first asked him about using the N-word before filming, and told him that fans enjoy hearing the word, but McKnight said no, Buzzfeed reports. Camp then asked again during a break during filming, stating that his co-star, Deborah Hinkle, who performs under the name Ryan Conner, had already consented to it. McKnight refused both times.

“I said, ‘I don’t care if she’s OK with it — I don’t like that word and I’m not down with it,’” McKnight told Buzzfeed. Despite McKnight’s protests, however, Hinkle used the word twice while filming the “money shot,” McKnight’s suit alleges. The film was then uploaded to dogfart.com, a porn network run by DF Productions, Inc. Buzzfeed reports.

“I just felt violated and betrayed,” McKnight said in an interview with the Daily News. “I’ve shot over 50 scenes for this company. For a long time, I was one of their top guys. And I’m always publicly talking about racism. For them to even ask me was an insult, then to do it against my will, it hurts. It feels like it was a set-up.”

McKnight’s suit alleges that Camp and DF Productions, Inc. knew about Hinkle’s plans to use the slur during filming, and thus defrauded McKnight “for the purpose of creating and selling racist content to its racist customers.”

McKnight continued to protest the “fraudulent act of racism in the workplace” over the next several months, his suit alleges. The film containing use of the slur was published and sold starting in December 2017, according to McKnight’s suit, after Camp and Cable Christopher Rosenberg, the production company’s owner, reneged on a promise to edit out the slur.

“You’re a disgrace. To your people. To your family. To yourself,” Camp allegedly wrote in a text message. McKnight claimed that Camp and Rosenberg further demonstrated “ill will and malice” they held toward McKnight by sending him a series of abusive text messages.

“The use of the N-word in the workplace is extraordinarily harmful to African American workers,” McKnight's lawyer Dan Gilleon told the Daily News. “It’s a violent, abusive word that embodies the pure evil of racism. It has no place in our society. Moe is going high by filing a lawsuit instead of acting in kind to this egregious act of racism.”

McKnight, who has worked in the adult film industry for nine years, told Buzzfeed that he pursued a lawsuit because black adult film stars face rampant discrimination in the industry.

“I want that word and those types of stigmas to be eliminated from the adult industry,” McKnight said.

[Photo: Stock photo of hands holding a film slate over a white background. By Tubagus Andri M/EyeEm, via Getty Images]