Employees find noose hanging at work

CNN ^ | 01-05-07 | Allan Chernoff

[tioga]

OH, blow it out your ears. I read a few of your posts, you are angry and argumentative. Let me ask you this, have you ever harassed a co-worker?

[Jezebelle]

I haven't found it an innocent or guilty act. You have found it a guilty act because some black person says you should and the media have told one side of the story.

You automatically assume that because someone claims to have been offended, it's therefore unquestionably offensive. In your model, nobody can ever be innocent. See how that works? Intent means nothing to you. It doesn't register. Someone took offense, end of story in your paradigm, and the alleged offender is guilty because offense was taken. It's circular, and it's endless because anybody can claim offense at anything. Taking offense is an emotion, and it's strictly subjective, therefore it's limitless.

Stalin and Mao would be proud.

[SauronOfMordor]

A noose is not funny especially when observed by individuals whose group was lynched until recently.

Statistics from Tuskegee Institute have total black lynchings between 1882 and 1968 totaling 3,445 (lynchings of whites were 1,297). The Bloods and Crips have killed far more blacks than lynchings ever did

[Jezebelle]

Well, I did once tell my boss his fly was open on April Fool's Day. Does that count? Most of the people I worked with weren't the type of people looking for a hand-out because of their emotional response to something they saw or heard no matter what the intent might have been, although in the last couple years before I retired (2004) we were beginning to see some of the Maoist thought and speech police PC whining, most of which was media-driven bandwagon-jumping on the part of clerks and secretaries.

Yes, it does anger me somewhat to read the type of knee-jerk leftist thinking I'm seeing on a conservative forum, so yes, I will argue the point until the cows come home.

[Jezebelle]

And vastly more whites have been killed by guns in the hands of blacks than there were blacks ever lynched, but white people aren't whining about guns as a symbol of black hatred toward whites.

The whole matter of a noose being a racist symbol is ludicrous.

[tioga]

For the record, I do not think the should be able to sue for anything. But that supervisor has a responsiblity to his employees and he deliberately antagonized them and he should be punished. Fire him, suspend him - whatever.

I have worked in an environment where I was harassed. I could sue or quit, I quit instead. By the time I quit I was an emotional wreck. I deserved to be able to work there without the harassment. Sad, but it happens every day. How do you propose to fix that? - my answer is to fire those who harass others. They deserve it after all, why should the victim have to quit?

[pandoraou812]

Lmao Yes we did and yes I do . I tend to think being on the 2nd floor and having those 2 big dogs kept them at bay. I did walk them late at night if it was hot and if nobody was around my male did use the side of the building. I should go back up that way and see if the place is still there. This was years ago and I haven't gone back that way in quite awhile. I tend to think the area really went down hill, as it was on its way then. Sad it used to be a nice area. Blocks from the ocean, nice old houses. Last I heard the gays were moving in and trying to redo everything.

[Jezebelle]

I am sorry you were harrassed at work, especially if it was a good job where you'd worked a long time. I hope things are better for you now.

However, there is more than one type of harrassment. If co-workers were taunting you about something, I would think you could just blow it off or fight back. If it's a boss riding you about job performance, putting unjustified bad performance reports in your personnel record or something like that, that isn't warranted by comparison of your work product to the work product of people in the same job, that's another matter with a number of ways to handle it, depending on what's possible within the organization.

We don't know yet what the supervisors intent was, but clearly he wasn't planning to hang anyone because nobody was hanged. We don't know if he wanted to antagonize or if it was a joke. All we know is that a group of black employees at a company have decided that a noose is a racist symbol and they have subjectively chosen to take offense at it. We also know these employees claim they have issues about advancement in the company which they claim they are being denied because of their skin color. We don't know what their work habits are or if their job performance and knowledge base warrants promotion. This whole thing with the noose may be a retaliatory claim being made because they don't want to do the work or get the education needed to advance in the company, or a means of suing their way up the ladder of promotion. We haven't heard the other side's story in any detail whatsoever, and I refuse to jump on the leftist PC bandwagon and accept what they say at face value, especially in view of what I have seen going on in the reverse discrimination arena in recent years and the number of fraudulent claims and suits of blacks in search of a fat payout claiming racist behavior by a white person.

For the record, I had a male supervisor who, early in my career in law enforcement said to me, when I was explaining why something couldn't be done right that second, "You can change your kotex later. Just get it done!" (kotex wasn't the reason I couldn't do that certain thing at that moment - the problem was a database being down) Anyway, I told him to go F himself and to get his owned damned report, and he never did anything like that again. In fact, he cut me a pretty wide berth after that, lol!

[torchthemummy]

University classrooms.

In some cases you can and some you can't. That being said a "purposeful recording" could be denied by claiming you forgot to hit the "hold" button and accidently recorded.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Hanging Saddam was a racist act.

[Jezebelle]

Akitas are a formidable breed.

It would be interesting for you to see what is there now, but it might not be safe to find out! Take some akitas and Mr. Glock along for the ride if you go. ;>

[Jezebelle]

:>

Works for me.

[pandoraou812]

When I had my last child who is 7 yrs old now my then new husband decided I couldn't breed akitas and dobermans anymore. One of the female akitas would growl each time he picked up the baby.... So the dogs went to my partner's farm. I am allowed to breed ..now don't you laugh...Shih tzu's. I have 4 of them and one pekashih. Matter of fact I am hand feeding 4 pups all night long as the mom got a fever last weekend. They are cute , don't shed and are very good with children. I actually make more money off them then I did the bigger breeds. But I plan to go back to dobermans at some point. I just really love that breed.

[SauronOfMordor]

And vastly more whites have been killed by guns in the hands of blacks than there were blacks ever lynched, but white people aren't whining about guns as a symbol of black hatred toward whites.

The peak number of lynchings of blacks in any year was 1892 (161 lynchings). Black-on-white murders in 2004 was about 1360.

[SauronOfMordor]

Do you think if a white person found a noose in his locker he would be LESS terrified knowing that someone sleeping in a room of fifty wanted to hang him?

A white person in a mostly-black group would have a more legitimate fear of being killed, than a black person in a mostly-white group

[aberaussie]

I am not sure what about my post struck a nerve with you, but I'm feeling a little dull intellectually tonight...I'll leave you alone if you'll leave me alone.

'Kay?

[supremedoctrine]

"I'll leave you alone if you leave me alone"
------But of course. Nothing about your post struck a nerve, just that sometimes these threads, and this is a particularly lively one, strike nerves in a whole bunch of people at the same time, and everyone is just quickly scouring the replies , looking for something to "respond to". Nothing personal. Just exercising rhetorical/polemical muscles. I have bowed out of a few threads also "in my time", but usually not without getting rather nasty and impatient with a few who seemed to intentionally keep misinterpreting my words.
Then one gets "ganged up on" and one has to extricate himself without provoking the dreaded "Viking Kitties".
You do not EVER want to provoke the Viking Kitties.

[Jezebelle]

Shih tzus. Okay. I won't laugh.

:> :> :>

I promise I'm not laughing. Just smiling. :>

Dobermans are indeed a handsome breed, but my heart lies strictly with Jack Russell Terrorists. It's the only breed for me. They're irrepressibly cheerful, fearless, roughshod and always ready to rock 'n roll in 4WD. :>

[Jezebelle]

Yep. Look at what happened to those young girls on Halloween in Long Beach. They were lucky to escape with their lives after being set upon and beaten by a gang of 15-30 blacks yelling racial epithets at them. It was one of the worst hate crimes I've ever heard of. We barely heard about it in the media. Had it been white-on-black, it'd still be on the news every night or so. It was a horrific crime.

[jonrick46]

Very perceptive. In fact, you have seen through this facade with X-Ray vision. People can be very inventive to manipulate the situation for their gain. That is why management has to pay attention to behavior that could escalate to a hostile workplace. By showing everyone professional courtesy and respect, one avoids loss of productivity and efforts to undermine your authority.
This sensitivity about how others experience ones behavior should have been taught to management by the human resources department of 180 Connect. It should be teaching its employees about conduct that is not only legal, but appropriate and professional. By following professional standards, the management can avoid the question of whether such behavior is legal or not. As I say, one golden rule for avoiding such conduct should be this: can it be seen as mean or demeaning? If it can, don't do it.

Another rule of thumb is what you say or do at home may not be appropriate to do at work. What goes on in pop culture may not be appropriate either. The workplace is for productivity; not fun and games. When employees at 180 Connect expressed displeasure at the use of the hangman's noose, their concerns should have been taken seriously. Now the incident is being reported on CNN. It will take time for 180 Connect's reputation to be restored because of the bone headed behavior of a few managers.