BOSTON -- MBTA supervisor Andrea Gordon walked into a district office in Brookline last month and couldn't believe what she saw. She found something that raises serious questions about whether racism is alive and well at the transit agency.

Watch Report

She discovered a toy truck with plastic action figures of a gorilla and well-dressed black man in sunglasses sitting together in the back.

"It brought tears to my eyes. I was embarrassed, I was angry," Gordon said. "I couldn't believe that something that racially disturbing would be sitting on a desk that upwards of 300 people could walk into at any time."

Gordon, who is black, is a veteran MBTA employee and currently works on the Green Line. She discovered the toy on the desk of a fellow supervisor in early June.

"I didn't know if I should cry, scream or grab it," Gordon told Team 5 Investigates.

Instead, she snapped a picture using her cell phone and reported the discovery to her supervisors.

"There's a systemic problem with the racism on the MBTA," said Gordon.

"People still characterize us with animals and gorillas and it's sinful, it's shameful, it's an embarrassment."

According to Gordon and papers she filed against the agency, it's a direct violation of one of the MBTA's own rules.

The T's policy states: "The following are examples of conduct that may constitute prohibited discrimination: Ethnic, racial, religious, age, sexual orientation or gender based slurs, jokes caricatures, cartoons or graffiti."

Attorney Michelle Carnevale helped Gordon file the complaint against the agency.

"At a minimum, the person who had this on her desk should have been disciplined, at a minimum, taken off the payroll for some amount of time," Carnevale said. "But nothing has happened. Nothing."

They're not optimistic that anything will happen given the MBTA's history of civil rights complaints. Discrimination against its own employees has already cost the agency and taxpayers millions of dollars.

"I think it's going to get swept under the rug like everything else does," Carnevale said.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo declined Team 5's request for an interview. He said the agency will investigate the complaint.

Gordon filed that complaint a month ago and so far no disciplinary action has been taken.

"I just want justice. I just want to be treated like a citizen that I am," Gordon said.