No telling why a guy like that got tagged with a ‘kick me’ sign. Seems like a real man’s-man.
SnakeDoc
The article, actually, offers a plausible explanation:
In addition, Palacio said co-workers would hide his work uniform and filled his work bag with trash. He claims the abuse he faced over a few months was racially motivated because he's Filipino.
I don't know how much racism was involved here, but he certainly was ostracized. One doesn't need to be of a different race for that to happen.
Filing a lawsuit is certainly the right thing to do, here and now. Perhaps a century or two ago this could have been sorted out differently, but times have changed and duels are no longer socially acceptable. There is nothing else he could have done and kept his job, since the bullies were intent on keeping torturing him just for free entertainment. You will seldom find intellectual giants working jobs of those guys.