I was curious about how it turned out…
CLAY, W.Va. — After uproar over a local official’s Facebook post that compared first Lady Michelle Obama to an ape, Clay Town Council came to order, approved minutes from the last meeting, agreed to pay the town’s bills, accepted the mayor’s resignation, apologized and adjourned. source
A follow-up to this thread.
At least there’s some justice here.
Racism is so obviously a no-win lose-lose situation, they “dun goofed” and payed politically for it. But the toxic spill is done and hurts everybody across the political spectrum, even if it remains contained and doesn’t turns into another “1st admenment vs hate speech” drama-fest.
More “golden rule” and less of “an eye for a eye” is more of a win-win situation, fuck, even turning the other cheek is more of a victory…
After re-reading the article, I got the feeling that the council did the best damage control they could, seems like in general terms it strengthened the community values.
For the record, I’m a progressive-thinking non-caucasian middle-class postgraduated female, but I still feel bad that someone has to lose their job for insulting someone.
I mean, let’s not turn into what we are opposing, the alt-right would surely will try to censor into oblivion anyone who would insult their bullyish cheeto geronto-kleptocrat overcombed messiah.
And blind white guilt is still reverse racism.
No one forced her post the insult on Facebook, for all the world to see.
Like the waitress a few years back who derided some customers at the restaurant where she worked on FB, and didnt realize that her boss was also in her friends’ list. She also lost her job because of a foolish choice.
Actions have consequences, especially when they are avoidable.
She has no one to blame but herself.
Totally agree, but still makes me feel uneasy about this huge morally grey zone exposed.
SO am I prone to lose my job also if I get to say someday in 8 years that I’m so glad Trumpa Lumpa’s gold digger trophy wife will leave and so CLASS will return to the White House? Hypothetically speaking, since I really have no grudge against Melamine.
/tongue in cheek
Hopefully, you’re not ignorant enough to post any potentially controversial political statements publicly causing you to find yourself in such an unfortunate position.
As for myself, I’m old enough to remember a time when it was actually considered impolite to talk about politics and religion in ‘mixed company.’
I can also recall when people didn’t feel the need to publicize every single thought that passes through their heads without regard to any possible ramifications.
Lastly, to take it out of the context of the internet:
If I were to insult one of the execs or one of the clients at my job within earshot of my manager or coworkers, you can best believe I’d probably end up in the unemployment line before the day was out.
And the company would be well within their rights for doing so, because at the very least such behavior is highly unprofessional and could reflect badly upon their business.
Oh snap.
/s
Now, being serious, I agree with most of what you wrote, but I really hope that this example of unwritten Lèse-majesté retaliation would not set a precedent, Trump and trumpistas have way thinner skins and they haven’t got the keys to the kingdom yet and they are already asking for heads to roll.
And everything is just so polarized unwholesomely nowadays, so I wasn’t being an apologist for racist politicians and gov employees, I was calling for moderation in responses, aiming at proportionality is an excellent trait. The problem is that when proportionality gets derailed hyperbolically by either side, how do we get to the center again?
Something’s gotta give.
Not meant as any kind of dis; snark is just my first language.
That being said, I don’t mean to infer that your intent here is to defend bigoted officials.
I’m saying that expressing offensive thoughts can have detrimental consequences, so it’s probably just best not to express them publicly.
That’s how I feel regardless to which side of the political spectrum one falls.
This was especially true in the case of the women in West VA; they were both in positions of authority, and as such they are held to an even higher standard of decorum and behavior.
It’s easy. For the duration of the Trumpocalypse, we just have to make a list of all the depraved arseholes who think they have carte blanche to carry on like it’s Hitler’s Germany, and then when the pendulum swings, line the cunts up against a wall.
Or try them for hate crimes or whatever… But I’m partial to the eradication with extreme prejudice option. In the meantime, just keep saying ‘Nuremberg’ a lot.
Yes, those women were in positions of authority, one of them was an elected official, and they shouldn’t have said such despicable things, not even with innuendos and/or coded racism, way less with such aberrant racial slur, etc…
Hate speech is always hate speech. But I cannot get to stop suspecting that the whole thing was uprooted so vigorously fast as possible by the self-loathing hand of white guilt/shame (reverse racism). Mostly after all the apologies from people who weren’t those specific women. (i.e. I could have baked a pie for you guys if I knew you were coming, we are not like that, etc…)
So they elected a racist woman(maybe not knowing it), then mayor employed another racist woman, they type racist slurs on facebook as if in a private conversation and the whole world’s non-alt-right overproportioned reaction is ovewhelming for the little town, I really fear we could turn into something alike “them”, alike those with a penchant for cross burning because they believe “it’s the right thing to do”.
An apology directly from Taylor and Whaling would had been 10x better even if it wasn’t honestly made, made on camera would had been 100x, because it’s conciliatory. Yes, I know, fuck PC that’s so 90’s, heheh, but now that I’m older I could get to appreciate a little of confucian moderation as a meager substitute when lacking some naturally homeostatic tao.
A meager conciliation is way better than a rightful polarization, specially nowadays.
Between the lines it reads like "People should be allowed to say such things, in semi private, and a apology should have been enough.’
No, no, no, it’s far from OK to say such a thing, ever.
It’s the standard “serious mistake made by individual on the Internet, massively disproportionate worldwide justice meted out by the Internet” scenario. Plenty of other BB articles on this topic.
etc etc etc
Strange how I’d be inclined to agree under slightly different circumstances, but somehow I do feel that this WVa post crossed an uncrossable line. As an elected official who got caught even semipublicly laughing at a much-more-than-slightly racist joke that sufficiently embarrassed/horrified her constituents, the result was not what I’d consider disproportionate. She wore her bigotry too openly and it cost her. She “misread the room.” The town, come to find out, did not want that particular kind of booger displayed on its municipal face, for which I gotta hand it to them.
This was a different situation than, say, the Hollywood Blacklist where unpopular political opinions cost people their livelihoods. Quite different.
What’s this awful “justice” that’s been meted out in this case “worldwide,” exactly? Seems instead like “expressions of disapproval” to me. And like it’s you who’s exaggerating.
Love it.
One for the try_to_work_these_clever_metaphors_into_everyday_conversation.txt file.
Thank you.
It certainly still benefited the GOP this election.
Heaven forbid that “mistakes” have negative consequences.
Exactly.
@Melizmatic @Mindysan33 @Donald_Petersen please read the article for elaboration:
I do agree officials in a public office should be held to a higher standard. Or, well, I used to, until the US electorate voted Trump into the highest office in the land.
