The first amendment does not cover hate speech, nor does it trump your employers policies on behavior and social media. The number of people being fired for racist social media posts goes up daily. Employees, mainly white, have been finding this out firsthand. It seems the white privilege that has surrounded them their whole lives has started to disappear. Not everyone is taking it well.
As I showed you in my last article, racist have taken to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to attack and harass Black people and demonize the Black Lives Matters movement. It’s not new, in fact this type of behavior has existed since social media was constructed. White privilege and the climate it supported once let us little recourse but in today’s’ society such blatant racism is not tolerated. While people are fully allowed to say what they want, many companies now have policies on how their employees social navigate social media. A company’s employees are often looked at as representatives of the company whether on the clock or not. Companies don’t want to lose business over their employees personal thoughts and actions.
I started doing the research yesterday for this article. When I started I was simply going to list 10 white people who have been fired or suspended in the last year for their racist social media posts. Believe it or not AFTER I finished my research for the day I came across the stories that broke YESTERDAY of two MORE people who lost their job just in the last 48 hours for spewing hate and/or racism via social media.
This morning as I perused the overnight news stories from across the country I stumbled across a new article reporting that an Iowa state employee had been fired due to her racist social media post. Amy Pollpeter took to her personal Facebook page to complain about Black Lives Matters and Black people in general. The Iowa Department of Public Safety fired crime analyst, Pollpeter, after she posed in part the following on Facebook:
“Yes, not every black person is going to shoot me because I look at them wrong, or because I happen to be attending a training so I’m wearing a DCI shirt that day — but I know that there is a stronger chance that they will today than they would have 5 years ago,”
Pollpeter also specifically blamed the shooing of 5 Dallas cops on a member of he Black Lives Matter movement. She continued to say that “if you support Black Lives Matters you are supporting a cop killer.” The former state employee went on in detail about how she no longer feels safe around Black people. She was promptly fired when her Facebook post made it to the eyes of her employer. Rightfully so, as a state employee, her salary was paid by many of those Black residents she feared and disgusted so much.
As news of her firing spread the racists who love Facebook started to remove their clan hoods to speak. The climate in America sure has changed, as have the tides. Every one is not taking it well. I can assure you that there are many white people who are not handling their loss of privilege as well as Blacks have handled the lack of equality, respect and opportunity in America. They have called Black Lives Matters a “terrorist group” and referred to them as the “Black clan” and likened them to the KKK. In a way they’ve admitted the KKK is a terrorist group but we’ll pretend that they haven’t acknowledged that ( wink).
Check out some of these horrible comments and understand I took them ALL off of ONE news post. This “news” agency poss articles daily that paint Black people, Black Lives Matters and anything else considered “liberal” as wrong, hate fueled and anti-American.
I’m glad Pollpeter was fired from her $85,000 a year. The Iowa Department of Public Safety has a social media policy that warns that actions may be taken against employees regarding their social media posts, as the content of their posts many affect their credibility as a witness for the state in court cases. Pollpeter was often called into court in her position as an analyst. The Department of Public Safety also has a conduct code that prohibits personal and business dealings that reflect unfavorably on the department.
“The Iowa Department of Public Safety has a strong commitment to integrity, impartiality and professionalism in every aspect of our work,” said Commissioner Roxann Ryan. “We have adopted these policies in order to ensure that the public has trust in all that we do, and our policies reflect the high standards that we maintain,”
Pollpeter is far from alone in being fired for racism on social media. People need to understand, you have a right to FEEL however you feel, but when you voice those feelings it gives people cause to think you may ACT on those feelings. Even worse when you work for the public, that your feelings may cause inaction that leads tragedy.
Just think of how many “good” cops have stood by idle as their partner has assaulted or killed unarmed civilians. In some cases inaction makes you just as guilty as the party who committed the actions. Let Me show you 11 more white individuals who have been suspended or lost their job due to racist social media posts.
On July 24, 2016 a waitress at Cheddar’s Murfreesboro in Tennessee posted racist snapchats while serving a table of Black patrons referring to them as “nigg&rs.” The waitress was so nice in the face of the customers that they themselves had no idea there was a problem until it was brought to their attention later. One of the patrons took to social media to display her disgust.
The owner of Cheddars Murfreesboro told a local reporter “We, ourselves, were shocked and offended after learning one of our servers had posted comments on social media that were hurtful and derogatory,” Lee Greer, president of the management group that owns Cheddar’s Murfreesboro, told WSMV. “This type of behavior will never be tolerated in our restaurants. The server was immediately suspended and ultimately terminated after our internal investigation.”
When you walk into a hospital you would expect everyone there to be open, warm and in a mood to “assist” you. What happens when you’re Black and you walk into a hospital where the first person you encounter is racist? Situations like that it why it is imperative we catch these racist among us. Diane Amoratis learned that last week when she was terminated from her job after a particularly hostile Facebook post calling for harm to be done to Black Lives Matters protestors. She further went on to describe her aggravation with “the Blacks” Amoratis has since deleted her entire Facebook profile.
Cameron Thomas, a security guard at Kentucky’s Anderson County Sheriff’s office, was fired after a racist Facebook post that included the line “How do you spell garbage? “Black” completely pathetic and worthless.” A few of the other sentiments Thomas expressed were “If they want hate, which they clearly do, they’ll always hate white people no matter what.” Also “Why don’t we just start hating back? Really give em some of their own medicine and remind them how bad racism used to be, then let them see if they are still being treated unfair.” He further stated “They want to kill then why not give them what they want? Instead of giving them all of white people’s money and BS benefits, let’s just give them a few shots to the face.”
Thomas has since deleted his Facebook profile as well.
Well known Pittsburgh news reporter Wendy Bell was fired after she stereotyped all Black people as criminals via social media. While on a Facebook post about a shooting suspect that was at the time unidentified, Bell decided that the criminal MUST be Black. The former reporter posted “You needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts two weeks ago Wednesday … They are young black men, likely in their teens or in their early 20s,” Bell said. She continued, “They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs. These boys have been in the system before.” Wow, the nerve of some people. An 18 year veteran at the station, Bell later admitted that her statements could be viewed as racist and apologized.
Gerod Roth uploaded a picture of himself and a co-worker’s three-year-old son on social media. In the comment section Roth engaged in conversation with his friends describing the child as feral, hungry, and poor in addition to comparing him to Kunta Kinte from Alex Haley’s Roots. When asked why he called the child “feral” he replied “Because he was abandoned in the Atlanta projects, to fend for himself, he is deaf mute, ca’t (sic) properly communicate and is in and out of a shelter home, that is the definition of feral.” Polaris Marketing Group fired Roth immediately after his comments went viral.
High school principal Jeremy Spencer was placed on administrative leave and subsequently resigned after his hate filled posts about Black people was reported to his superiors at the Department of Education. Superintendent Richard Woods has said
“Like most people, I was disheartened and disgusted to see the posts made by Mr. Spencer on his Facebook page. These posts in no way reflect my opinions, or those of the Department of Education.”
It took Spencer only 24 hours to lose his job after posting the racist photos and comments on Facebook.
“you f**king n**gers and yes if [you] can call each other that well I can too f**king n**gers go back to Africa get over your pity party you created this hatred and your own kind that brought your great great grandparents over here and sold them.” That’s the statement that got Christine Mcmullen Lindgren fired from her great job at Bank of America. Lindgren also saw how fast social media can work against you when it took only 24 hours for her to be terminated.
Emily Sepulvado lost her nursing job at University Health after a string of racist Facebook comments. She claims that she never made any of the posts, but was hacked by an ex. Her job wasn’t playing that game though. The statements included “Yes we would all appreciate to walk a day in your shoes. Free food, houses, no job. SIGN ME UP.” “Y’all all worried about cops.. but y’all are killing each other faster than we ever could. Keep up the good work.” and referred to slavery and highlighted Black stereotypes.
AND HERE’S THE KICKER
Just yesterday news broke that a NYPD detective is under investigation for racist Facebook posts that also include bashing of Mayor Di Blasio’s Black wife. The posts were on his Facebook page, shared only with his friends but screen shots have now surfaced. Gregory Gordon, 33, of the 121st Precinct in Staten Island has went viral for all the wrong reasons.
One of his posts read “Are you f—— kidding me? Stop acting like anyone owes you anything. Slavery ended 149 years ago,”
His racism filled posts have been going on for years, he has continued into July 2016 posting most recently.
Today’s cover of the New York Daily News is a story on Gordon.
“The comments made by Gregory Gordon do not in any way represent the views of the New York City Police Department,” a police spokesman said according to the New York Daily News.
Remember he’s not the only cop or first responder who thinks like that. I told you a week ago about them being suspended and fired left and right over social media posts. Missed the article? Read it here.
