Last week, Real Housewives of NYC star Cindy Barshop found herself slapped with racial discrimination lawsuit filed by her ex-employee, Altovise Collier. In case you missed the juicy deets ... Altovise, who is black, told the New York Post, "I was treated like trash and thrown in the gutter, damn near sleeping in the streets." Altovise claimed her co-workers taunted her with racist jokes and withheld crucial information about waxing techniques when they trained her. Altovise says she complained to the big boss Cindy about how she was being treated, but was fired a week later.

But ... the plot thickens! TMZ reports Cindy is now fighting back by trying to turn the tables, saying her former Completely Bare worker was fired for being incompetent and now, in a “racist fashion,” is playing the race card and trying to exploit Cindy. The Housewife claims Collier only worked for CB for two and a half months -- and was fired over "disciplinary and other work performance problems, including client complaints."

Hmmm ... maybe if Altovisehad received the proper training she says was denied to her, clients wouldn’t have complained?

Cindy claims this stunt is nothing more than racist extortion attempt and a swat at her professional reputation, while Altovise thinks $5,000,000 should suffice in reparations.

Sigh. It’s so hard to find good help these, right Maria Shriver?