https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/10/opinions/while-black-at-yale-and-starbucks-owens-opinion/index.html
She and the other worker on the shift were fired.
^this is NOT the same at all as napping. They played the explicit version of the song rather than the radio edit, which is normally used in businesses. They did something unprofessional. Perhaps being fired is a strong response, but I’m guessing many retail and coffee shops would do the same.
Alh- I completely agree the Duke baristas should not have been fired. Please note however the following:
The music was completely innaproriate for a work place using both misogynist and racist terms. The Duke dean complained but the decision to fire the employees was made by the coffee shop owners. One of the two employees fired was white so this wasn’t racially based.
Poor decisions, overkill, etc yes. Racial bias overt or subtle not the case. I am not saying racism doesn’t exist. To the contrary it is very real, just not embodied in the story you mention.
Although I feel differently than #102 and #103, I’ll certainly concede my post 100 didn’t belong in this thread. Sorry about that.
If I’d seen your responses in time, I would have deleted.
Which of my assertions do you disagree with?
They shouldn’t have been fired.
The musics lyrics were in appropriate for a business.
Racism exists.
Everything else was factual.
I just saw a piece about this on the ABC News. It showed the white student who called the police. it was not the first time she had done this. She appears to have mental health issues in addition to being racist.
Actually, one time when I was a student and fell asleep in the library, campus security did wake me up and tell me to leave. Whether anyone reported the incident to the police or campus security was patrolling the library looking for sleeping students to kick out I can’t say.
I have the privilege of being a short white middle-aged woman and so I am perceived as nonthreatening. To tell the truth, I don’t do threatening things. But I could and probably would be able to get away with them to a certain extent because I don’t fit the stereotypes of “person who looks different than me and therefore might do something bad.” I think about this privilege every time someone stops me while I’m walking and asks for directions.
When I was helping my daughter move with a used car out of state, I was driving around with a temporary placard that was in the rear window. Cops must have had a hard time seeing it. I was pulled over three times in one week. One guy said 'sorry, ma’am but we’ve had a rash of car thefts in this area recently". I almost said, “yeah, by middle aged moms?” but I held my tongue. He was only doing his job.
@rosered55 I am also a small woman who is frequently stopped by people needing directions. There was one time it seemed obviously racist. I was trotting toward the bus stop rather quickly, when a woman who had walked past several black men, tried to stop me and ask for directions. I suggested she ask the gentleman for directions because I had a bus to catch.
But you will never know for sure why she asked you instead of the black men she passed. It could have been that she felt more comfortable approaching a woman she saw. And may have similarly passed up white men as well. Who knows.
That might be more of a gender bias. As a woman I’d be inclined to ask another woman a question on the street before I asked a man regardless of race.
Sex, size, and race: the trifecta. Really, I would have a hard time hurting a fly even if I wanted to (and I do want to hurt flies!).
The Airbnb one is tough for me. In those “neighborhood watch” programs, looking out (& reporting) anything suspicious or unusual is encouraged, and many neighborhoods are segregated (was this one all white?).
Thank you for this thread. It’s good to read recent incidents all in one place.
It was probably both gender and race. But it was not remotely a dangerous place or time of day.
Yes, in these nextdoor online or neighborhood watch type things , reporting is encouraged. Someone on mine posted fairly recently about a 70+ year old white guy that she thought was lingering in his car too long in front of her house. She was suspicious but someone quickly set her straight- he was just a work guy waiting for the nearby homeowner to get home so he could give a quote for work!
Re: not a remotely dangerous place or time of day, our Neighborhood Watch Program has been sending out notices about day time break-ins and encouraging us to be on the lookout for anything unusual, including people posing as utility workers or repair vans in driveways when you suspect the homeowner is not home.
And, about ten miles away from us, a very affluent suburb has had an alarmingly number of car thefts in broad day light. The neighborhood is so “safe” people leave their cars unlocked with the car fob inside. Some of the home owners have left their home doors unlocked (usually door from garage to inside), and thieves have grabbed purses or other valuables off the kitchen counter, etc. before taking off in the car.
No one would think it’s a dangerous place or time of day. But with the police trying to get the word out? I’m guessing it would be a dangerous time to be a POC in that very affluent, 99% white suburb. You know?
I remember the first time I heard of this, decades ago, and it involved “driving while black” although I don’t think that term had been coined yet. Remember the olympic sprinter Flo Jo? Her husband kept getting stopped for driving a “nice” car. He was so upset that he sold the car.
I wonder how Yale is dealing with the complainant. She has now made at least 2 calls to the police . She possibly needs mental health intervention as well as sensitivity training. Even though these are older graduate students, I would think Yale still has some oversight here.