http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article210946959.html
Why would a business play music with misogynist language? Why is the man who objected to the music being castigated for objecting?
I really don’t get the new rules of our society. As for myself, if I walked into a coffee shop playing rap music talking about britches and hoes and all the rest, I would walk out and never give them my business again.
This happened at Duke.
I think he was right to object to the music. However when he complained about it later to Dining Services, he should’ve noted that the employee immediately stopped the music, apologized, and offered to comp his food. That is excellent service that should balance their poor judgement in music.
IMHO the issue isn’t that he complained, it’s that somewhere along the line the message came that the two employees had to be fired. It was a trainable moment, not a fireable offense.
I think the uproar is because Britni Brown and her co-worker were fired over the incident. All she did was to turn on a play list and unfortunately the song with the objectionable lyrics was on that play list. She turned it off as soon as the VP of Student Affairs asked her to do so and offered him his “usual vegan muffin free of charge.” After he escalated it through Dining Services she and another co-worker were fired. Seems a bit much although I fully understand why he would object to the lyrics when college campuses are grappling with issues of racial tension and sexual assault.
But watching that video you have to love Britni Brown. That’s one emotionally healthy response to being fired.
So the coffee shop Joe Van Gogh is now leaving campus, I suppose because they want to continue to be able to play rap music.
Frankly, businesses who play such woman-hating music should not be on campus. Talk about a hostile environment.
I also question why a woman who presumably is against sexual harassment and sexual assault would choose to play such music.
She might not have been listening all that closely to the lyrics, especially while she was working. Background noise. In another thread, someone mentioned there are two versions of that song. One is more sanitized than the other. She may have heard the tune and assumed it was the cleaner version. She probably would have been more careful to pay attention to the songs playing if she hadn’t been fired for the mistake.
Spotify has removed R. Kelly from its playlists. They should remove all songs with the b word and worse. Businesses need to do what they can to show that violence against women is wrong by stop including such music in their music libraries to download.
TatinG, I guess we have a different interpretation of the first sentence of the article you posted. The coffee shop owner states he is closing his Duke location because he wants to preserve the company’s brand independence without conditions. I take that to mean, he wants to have control over the decision whether or not to fire an employee, not because they necessarily want to continue playing rap music. Later in the article it says that Duke University instructed the company to terminate the employees who were working that day.
One instance of poor judgment by a store employee should not necessarily mean the employee needs to be fired. Personally, I thought she handled the situation correctly. A simple complaint to the store manager about the music could have easily resolved this without costing two people their jobs. I’m glad to see owner is going to employ them at other locations.
I’m more interested in why businesses would play such music. As a potential customer, I would walk out and never return
@TatinG obviously it is your right to walk out and never return. Different businesses have different business models. There are places I don’t enjoy or agree with the music so I choose not to go. However, I would never ever attempt to have someone fired
It’s complicated. I listen to hip/ hop and rap, some of it has foul language, I’m against harassment etc. I grew up on it so that won’t change. Now I know good and well, patrons at a coffee shop don’t want to hear it, so she should’ve known better, that’s common sense. Perhaps they were bad employees and this gave the manager the opportunity to fire them.
I don’t like that kind of music either but if it offended me that much, I might complain to the manager and then let them determine whether or not they want to allow that music to be played. If so, I’d probably take my business elsewhere, just like I do with other businesses that offend me in some way (Hollister being one).
Partyof5, I dont think they were considered bad employees b/c the company has offered to rehire them. It sounds like they were pressured by Duke to fire them. However, then upon reflection decided they wanted to run their business w/o Duke interfering which is why they decided to close that location and offer to rehire those two employees.
To be unambiguous I don’t think the employees should have been fired.
Let’s look at the position the Duke Dean of Housing was in. The coffee shop is prominently placed in the middle of Duke campus. They are play music with vulgar, racist and misogynistiic lyrics. If he says nothing both him and Duke can be accused of tolerating a hostile environment.
So of course he says something to immediately address the situation and then contacts the campus London to this privately owned business.
Here the story differs. The school’s position is they alerted the coffee shop who independently decided to fire their employees. The coffee shop has never publically contradicted this narrative. There is a tape of the actual firing where the coffee shop representative tells the employees their firing is at the request of Duke. Again never proven or restated by Joe Van Goh. Also they could have said no to Duke if it wa the case.
Long story short. Duke Dean had every right and in fact was obligated to take both immediate and long term action to not allow the Duke campus to foster racist or hostile language. Duke did not nor could they force a private employer to fire anyone. Last but most importantly there is no evidence of anyone’s actions being driven based on race.
Much to do about nothing. Shame they were fired and lots of opportunities to have handled differently on the part of the coffee shop.
I think some of it is more classism than racism in this case, to be honest. That’s my gut feeling. That to the Duke dean, the people working in the coffee shop can just find another job, like it’s no big deal.
If the song was played as part of a playlist the employees might not have known what song was playing or if it was the clean version until after the fact.
What musical genre does NOT have misogynist lyrics?
Some interesting theories and questions raised.
The fired barista in one of her interviews mentions that the Dean had been a daily regular with whom she had previously had a very polite and engaged conversations. In retrospect wouldn’t seem like a case of classism given the catalyst for the change in attitude was so specific…highly offensive music in a public space that would reflect poorly on Duke University.
2nd the let’s address the assertion that the two employees were “unaware” of the lyrics. Well between them they had 4 ears and the Dean had 2 yet he noticed. To lower your expectations of these 2 employees is classism and demeaning to them. They were fully capable employees and if their customer heard the music so did they.
Lastly is there any alternative music that wouldn’t be offensive. Yes, there are an abundance of songs that don’t contain N or B words. There are entire genres of music such as some Jazz and classical with no lyrics at all. Might not be your taste but once again let’s not degrade these two employees by suggesting they weren’t “capable” enough to find suitable music for a public business.
Again do I think they should have been fired…no. But I don’t think we should seek out ways to minimize what and whom created the situation. I also have not seen or heard anything to contradict the University’s numerous statements and the legal reality that they had no part in the personnel issues of a privately owned and operated business.
We play Pandora in the store where I work. In the middle of Easy Listening or some such Pandora played a Bruno Mars song that dropped an F bomb. We switched the channel pretty quick when that happened but we had no idea it was coming. We don’t have control over what Pandora thinks is ok.
I do not understand why the employee was fired, she was just playing what was on the playlist. I think it’s ridiculous. Honestly, I never even listen to or understand most lyrics. It sounds like she’s a scapegoat. If you have a problem with something, speak up, and if they take care of it…good. Not everyone needs to be fired immediately.