DECISION & ORDER On November 2, 2021, the pro se plaintiff, Isaiah Thomas New, commenced this action under 42 U.S.C. §1981, the New York State Human Rights Law, and New York State common law. Docket Item 1; see Docket Item 6 (amended complaint). New, a former employee of M&T Bank Corporation (“M&T” or “M&T Bank”), alleges that the defendants — M&T, Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, M&T Deputy Counsel Arthur H. Salman, and several John Does — discriminated against him on the basis of race and unlawfully retaliated against him when he complained about the discrimination. Id. On September 6, 2022, the defendants moved to dismiss the amended complaint, Docket Item 11; on September 28, 2022, New responded, Docket Item 17; and on October 12, 2022, the defendants replied, Docket Item 18. For the reasons that follow, the defendants’ motion to dismiss will be granted unless New files a second amended complaint correcting the deficiencies identified below. FACTUAL BACKGROUND1 From July 2017 to June 2018, New — a Black man with “a bachelor’s degree in economics from an Ivy League university,” Docket Item 6 at
5, 7 — worked in M&T’s Finance Division as a “Management Trainee and Corporate Analyst,” id. at 10. He was “the only [B]lack employee” out of “approximately 75 staff” members on the floor where he worked, id. at 7, and “one of less than eight” Black employees “in the entire 350-person Finance Division,” id. at 8. Shortly after he started at M&T, New began to experience “daily harassment, verbal abuse[,] and racist jokes.” Id. at 17. For example, New’s manager — a white man — “yelled at [New] for various petty and insignificant things,” id. at 18, but “did not treat other bank employees…in such a manner,” id. at 19. New repeatedly raised concerns about his manager’s conduct and documented those concerns in writing. Id. at
