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Company fires employee after viral selfie surfaces with racist comments about co-worker’s son
The New York Daily News ^ | 10/5/15 | Nicole Hensley

Posted on 10/06/2015 6:08:12 AM PDT by Faith Presses On

Full title: Atlanta marketing company fires employee after viral selfie surfaces with racist comments about co-worker’s son

A former employee at an Atlanta-based marketing firm is at the center of a firestorm after a photo he posted of himself online with a colleague's black son unleashed a wave of racist bile from the man's friends and other Internet hatemongers.

Polaris Marketing Group employee Gerod Roth was fired after snapping a seemingly innocuous selfie alongside 3-year-old Cayden Jenkins and posting it to Facebook on Sept. 16, triggering an immediate torrent of hateful comments, including "I didn't know you were a slave owner" and "But Massuh, I dindu nuffin" while also calling the young boy "Kunta Kinte."

It was unclear what prompted the string of hateful jibes, but at some point Roth - who goes by the name Geris Hilton on Facebook - replied to a friend asking "Dude where the hell did you get a black kid??" by saying, "He was feral."

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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To: pgkdan

“Once we start looking the other way because the we don’t approve of the guy who got fired and he’s not the kind of guy we’d want to work with, it won’t be long before guys we like who share our opinions and persuations start getting fired for saying what we believe. How long before we start reading about people losing their jobs because of support for Traditional Marriage, for instance?”

I agree that that’s a danger, but in some cases it’s already happening. Thinking of the examples I’ve heard of, that’s been going on for awhile.

“I’m not defending the guy. I think he’s a complete creep and worse. But I still don’t like or approve of this trend of firing people for Socual Media postings. we should be free to express our opinions, on our own time, without fear of losing our jobs.”

Every form of communication before the internet carries responsibility, though, and the internet should be no exception. It’s wrong to punish people for their political views, no matter the form, and that should be fought against. But it’s also wrong not to hold people accountable because of the type of communication. In many cases, social media is used to falsely accuse people, and rush to judgment on the guilt or innocence of someone, but there are cases like this also, where this particular man used social media in a way that was clearly wrong. And from his defenses of what he did, in which he is apparently not being truthful (he tells the story like he didn’t have any power to remove the photo once he posted it and racist remarks began, which is untrue), it shows that his employer has made the right call.


21 posted on 10/06/2015 7:08:09 AM PDT by Faith Presses On ("After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations...")
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To: Faith Presses On

Both. He was stupid to do a wrong thing. Stupid is the common denominator with people that post “stuff” on the internet that ends careers, marriages, freedom etc....


22 posted on 10/06/2015 7:13:59 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: pgkdan
How long before we start reading about people losing their jobs because of support for Traditional Marriage, for instance?

It's already happening.

Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was removed after people voiced upset over his having donated to California's Proposition 8, which sought to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

23 posted on 10/06/2015 7:15:08 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: Faith Presses On

Why be on Facebook if so called friends can embarrass you? Get off and stick to email.


24 posted on 10/06/2015 7:17:41 AM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: FunkyZero
at least as of now, it’s not illegal to be a jackass or a racist. I would think that he has grounds to seek damages from the employer. I may not want to be friends with this guy, but his rights were just violated and he was financially harmed at the same time. the only real exceptions are public officials/cops, etc who are expected to be full time representatives of their employer

It's also not illegal to fire someone for any reason in at-will employment state. If the guy had half a brain, he would have deleted the post after the idiotic comments, or not responded to them. The feral comment shows he read the comments.

25 posted on 10/06/2015 7:18:04 AM PDT by sharkhawk (Here come the Hawks, the mighty Black Hawks)
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To: smalltownslick
PR and Marketing firms might be especially sensitive about anything that reflects badly on them. On the other hand he didn’t use his real name on his Facebook page, so how many people were aware it was him?

Apparently, at least one too many.

Too many people are idiots with social media. In this case, I would guess one of his FaceBook "friends" was a lefty who decided to screw him.

Stay off facebook. Or at least, post with the viewpoint that anything you post WILL be seen by a humorless HR person at your job.

26 posted on 10/06/2015 7:23:20 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: Oldexpat

He was wrong to take the photo in the first place. And then, if he didn’t approve of the racist remarks, he could have deleted the photo after he started getting them. A screenshot photo at Salon shows 531 likes and 82 comments.

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/05/racist_facebook_users_relentlessly_mocked_a_3_year_old_black_child_then_the_internet_struck_back/

Long before that point of so many likes and comments, he had it in his power to delete the photo with all the comments with it.


27 posted on 10/06/2015 7:38:50 AM PDT by Faith Presses On ("After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations...")
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To: smalltownslick

He used his own picture. He posted the picture of a co-worker’s child without her permission or knowledge. Not cool. Then to insult the child was wrong. He took the picture at work. I think that gives the company the right to fire him.


28 posted on 10/06/2015 7:39:56 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: PapaBear3625

So are you saying that what he did was all right, and the only problem was that he was caught, due to a traitorous friend?


29 posted on 10/06/2015 7:41:11 AM PDT by Faith Presses On ("After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations...")
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To: Future Snake Eater
at least as of now, it’s not illegal to be a jackass or a racist.

Was he fired for illegal activity? Is that the only reason a person can or should be fired?

Of course, it should be at a company's discretion to fire an employee for "silly behavior," for "acting foolishly," or for "making tasteless jokes." Even making "un-PC statements" should be sanctionable by summarily firing the offending employee, right?

Regards,

30 posted on 10/06/2015 7:57:09 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: TexasGunLover
and the reason your company is allowed to monitor and control your behavior outside of work by threatening your job is that we have accepted it. where do you draw the line? some are refusing to employ people for smoking.. at home. a line was crossed a long time ago and people just accept it. what happens if your employer deems your comments on FR to not be inline with company direction or philosophy? would you feel differently about that?

Listen, I'm not a proponent of racism and as I stated before, I think the guy and his "buddies" are jackasses. But there is a point to be made here. employers often step into bounds where they don't belong and this is one of those cases AFAIK

31 posted on 10/06/2015 8:32:21 AM PDT by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
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To: ilovesarah2012
"Well, the picture was taken at work."

You know, that's the one piece I didn't consider prior to reading your comment. Yes, this is now the employers business. That's the only connection that I see where the employer should be involved at all though.

32 posted on 10/06/2015 8:35:10 AM PDT by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
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To: Faith Presses On
So are you saying that what he did was all right, and the only problem was that he was caught, due to a traitorous friend?

I'm saying that an environment where everyone has to watch what they say, even when they think they are just talking privately to their circle of friends, is corrosive to the social fabric.

You apparently are OK with his being fired, because you disagree with what he did. Would you feel the same way about it if he was fired for privately expressing an opinion that you agree with (whether support for traditional marriage or Senator Cruz's presidential ambitions), but which his manager didn't like?

33 posted on 10/06/2015 8:37:29 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: FunkyZero

I agree.


34 posted on 10/06/2015 8:44:00 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: Michael.SF.
The guy really was fired for being an idiot.

Pretty much.

35 posted on 10/06/2015 8:47:23 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: smalltownslick

A person in PR or Marketing should know that you have to assume that ANYTHING you post online will be read by the entire world, and that they will find out who you work for.


36 posted on 10/06/2015 8:49:19 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Faith Presses On
Add this to the list of shortest books:

Facebook profiles and posts that won me the job

By: N. Ternet-Yuser

37 posted on 10/06/2015 8:50:54 AM PDT by GreenAccord (Bacon Akbar)
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To: PapaBear3625

—So are you saying that what he did was all right, and the only problem was that he was caught, due to a traitorous friend?
—I’m saying that an environment where everyone has to watch what they say, even when they think they are just talking privately to their circle of friends, is corrosive to the social fabric.

I don’t agree that that is what you said, even in the underlying meaning. But to what you’re now saying, it isn’t an accurate picture of the situation. This isn’t about the government putting listening devices in people’s living rooms. This is a man who took a photo of a co-worker’s child while at work, without permission, and then uploaded it to the internet, also without permission. So your description of the situation completely ignores that. Do you believe that it’s all right for people to take pictures of other people’s children without a parent’s permission, and do you believe it’s then okay to post those pictures on the internet, also without permission?

—You apparently are OK with his being fired, because you disagree with what he did.

I disagree with what he did, like I disagree with what a burglar does. Taking pictures of other people’s children without their knowledge, then posting the photo on the internet, then leaving the photo up when people make racist comments, and adding one himself, and then, finally, being dishonest about it all and not taking responsibility for what he did:

“I just really feel upset, not only with myself, but also the character that was based off the comments that my friends had made. Cayden has been victimized but I have been targeted,” Roth said.”

I’m not even sure what he was trying to say when speaking of “the character that was based off the comments that my friend had made.” But I know he believes himself to be a victim. And he has also been repeatedly untruthful about this.

“Shelton is a single mother and brings Cayden to her job after school. She told FOX 5 she was unaware that Roth took a picture with her son...Roth claims he didn’t think she would mind.”

http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/30427294-story

In another news story, Roth claimed that he was friends with the mother, and that’s why he thought she “wouldn’t mind.” But from what I’ve seen, the extent of their friendship was that they were co-workers. And IF they were friends, then why didn’t he ever mention to her taking the photo and then show it to her?

“Shelton also spoke to Atlanta Blackstar about what happened, and said the office she worked in with Roth is only 10 people.
She said Roth carried on as normal after posting the picture of Cayden and, even after it started going viral, did not speak to her about it.
‘I was really caught off guard, and the fact the picture had been posted September 16th, and he wasn’t fired until the 29th, and acting like nothing happened,’ she told the website.
‘He just went about like nothing even happened. 
‘It went on for days, a week and a half before anyone found out it even existed.’”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3261320/White-marketing-employee-fired-posting-selfie-hateful-racist-comments-son-black-colleague-calling-little-boy-slave.html

His story doesn’t add up, any way you look at it. If he and his co-worker were close enough friends for him to feel he could take a picture of her child without her permission, then he would have showed it to her and not posted it online as he did, and also kept receiving the comments he did, either. And if they weren’t close enough friends for him to take a picture of the child without the parent’s permission or knowledge, then what does that say about him that he did so?

His emailed apology to the mother is included in the Fox 5 Atlanta story, and I don’t believe it is much of an apology.

—Would you feel the same way about it if he was fired for privately expressing an opinion that you agree with (whether support for traditional marriage or Senator Cruz’s presidential ambitions), but which his manager didn’t like? 

Again, I don’t believe there’s the slightest basis for you equating what this man did to the sort of example above. They are not the same things, at all. I believe that at the least he knowingly promoted racism, and I most certainly do believe what he did in doing that was morally wrong in any setting, public or private. I most certainly believe it was unchristian. But there are all sorts of things that people do that are unchristian that are not illegal (although some should be) and not firing offenses, either (and they shouldn’t be). This case, though, isn’t one of those. From what he did, to his dishonest answers afterward, he didn’t act ethically, with integrity, and that was why his boss had very good reason to fire him (he reminds me of Hillary Clinton responding on her emails - he thought he was following guidelines, it’s the fault of other people, especially if they misconstrue what he did). His boss can’t trust him to act responsibly as he deals with other people in the course of his work.


38 posted on 10/06/2015 5:33:53 PM PDT by Faith Presses On ("After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations...")
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To: Faith Presses On
Racism is the new blasphemy.

That means Blacks are the new "gxds."

39 posted on 10/06/2015 5:41:06 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (The "end of history" will be Worldwide Judaic Theocracy.)
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Comment #40 Removed by Moderator


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