Girderman

I hold certain political situations I run into in higher esteem than others; specifically personal situations where real "global" political dynamics are manifest, in contrast to those we only hear or read about on TV or other media.

I have one such "personal" situation I would like to share.

"Ashley" is a student at a local, publically-funded State University. I know her personally.

Several weeks ago, she had a job working for this University as a Student Worker. I do not know the exact context of the situation, but as I understand it while she was "on the job" another student approached her for some reason (which I do not know the specifics of).

Ashley says that she was looking downward, and saw that the student was carrying a bag, and impulsively she made a joke to this student and asked "So, do you have a bomb in that bag ?"

She looked up for a reaction and discovered that the student was "brown". (her word).

This "brown" student called the Police and made a report, and filed a complaint with the University Administration, which resulted in Ashley's employment being terminated.

Ashley says that this was the only "disciplinary" incident she had ever had, so there is no chance that her employment was terminiated for any other reason besides this incident.

I'm rather infuriated, that a casual comment like this can result in such dramatic consequences and am very concerned about what this says about other situations that Americans must deal with. I believe Ashley and all other Americans have a consitutionally protected right to make casual and (I don't care what the hysteric "brown" person says or thinks) inoffensive and casual jokes.

One attorney I spoke to believes she has a clear case of Wrongful Termination under Title 9 of the Federal Employment Act, while another attorney believes that as this State is an "At Will" employment State, she can be fired for any reason at all, no matter what the circumstances.

I see valid arguements on both sides; however I doubt that Ashley could have been fired because she was "brown". So the "unlimited nature" of being in an "At Will" state in fact is going to have some limits, somewhere.

I am deeply concerned that this whole "War on Terrorism" is being whipped up by the Republican Administration and the Media into an emotional frenzy (they try to, anyways) and yet when average Americans react to that they are subject to serious consequence such as being fired.

This was a joke. However, (given the above paragraph) I wonder if it is perfectly reasonable for one citizen to be able to ask another citizen the question of whether or not they have a bomb in their bag as a matter of personal safety, no matter what the color of skin the person they are asking may have.

I am interested in hearing other people's opinions, as well as first-hand anecdotal experiences they may have had that are relevant to what has taken place in my immediate vicinity.

Girderman

mimo2005

10 years ago , that would have been a nice joke , but today , it is different .

Do you know how many arrests have been made related to " white powder jokes " and "bomb jokes" at airports and elsewhere ?


Imagine yourself you are "brown" , and someone that you don't really know asked you if you have a bomb in a public area inside a bus ?

Everybody PANICS !





( white powder - anthrax - dough)

Joefireline

People go from one extreme to another...

Some people are racest, and nothing is done about it, then you get situations where a black person thinks someone is being racest to them - when they are obviously not.

I see a person as a person, not white, not black, and all other races. When someone starts calling another person racest, when that is not the situation at all, then I see just a complete moron. If I see someone doing something to another person because of their race, I get really angry.

If someone comes to our country, and starts calling people racest for no reason, I get really really angry.

With this situation, they have gone way OTT.

yustr

Hey Lionel, how's the watermelon crop this year?

Hey Juan, how many lawns you cut this month?

Hey Moshe, what can't you eat with milk?

Hey Mustafa, is that a bomb in the bag?

Are we over reacting? Probably.

Is it a right to be rude, insulting, racist and condescending? No. The First Amendment is written to protect political speech not personal speech. Therefore your employer has an obligation (both from a public service stand point as well as from a profit motive stand point - assuming a for profit businees) to screen what employees say. If I call my client a jerk I get fired. I can argue that its a violation of my free speech till I'm blue in the face but I'm still fired.

Girderman

Are we over reacting? Probably.

I think it has to do with the values of the community as they are given to us, versus those values as they truly are.

Just watched most of the movie "Kinsey" about the 1950's Statistician that did the sex studies. One point I got from that move was that there was a very significant difference between what people thought the communities "sexual landscape" looked like in the 1950's and what it truly was. There was a lot more, and much more diverse diverse sexual activity going on than people believed. The difference between who they thought they were and why they truly were.

I apply this to issues such as those you describe. My problem is that the way the community deals with the "varying shades of grey" do not reflect my own values.

Making an explicitly offensive comment such as calling a customer a "jerk" should rank much higher on the list of discipliary offenses than making a joke about a bomb in a bag.

I am bothered by the fact that in our supposedly Democratic society, the laws "We" are supposed to be in control of do not reflect "Our" values. The degree to which this imbalance exists is also the degree to which we are not a democracy, but rather have our Laws handed down to us by a minority of elite that determine what we SHOULD believe, rather than what we do.

Further, the degree to which our constitutionally-protected rights do not apply in basic, day-to-day living is also the degree to which the Constitution is an empty and meaningless document.

Objectivists and Unionists share one common understanding, and that is their willingness to attempt to describe "quality of life" issues in clearly-definable terms. For all the flowery rhetoric, much of what we believe American IS would be more accurately described as how it SHOULD be as the exceptions too frequently are more significant.