Support NeoGAF

[Dai101]

This plus your caping for the confederate flag tells me all I need to know. *punt*

 

[Newtype-001]

Racists getting outed and fired gives me life.

 

[Zantetsuken]

If some people don't want someone getting fired for being racist, then what do you expect them to get fired for? Showing up late too many times? Stealing food from the break room fridge? Is that worse than this?

 

[statuez]

Right. But it's funny how you people always jump into threads like this to point out how wrong this all is. Well done! You're so concerned about where this could go and others are comparing it to lynch mobs with such fervor. It's beautiful. Tell me, for all the gnashing of teeth that people on the internet talk about in regards to witch hunts and so forth, the giant threads on reddit specifically where so many white people post. When have any of you gone into such a fervor over defending the innocence of black people? Why is it that when these things come up. A child, a child is being bullied and made fun of because of something he had no choice in. You all jump to the bullies feelings, livelihood and richest of all, mental well being?

You all seem to be so educated on the affects of lynching. I'm curious, have you ever researched the effects of racism....the links to physical problems, social problems, emotional problems? Mental problems? Or is racism just "being mean" like so many of you believe. That is has no real world consequences when someones racist? I know why you people think that way, because it doesn't affect you. You get your nice cozy bubbles and you can be as blind as you want to the suffering of others, that in a thread about a child being shat on. The arguments are about the words used, whether things are actually racist or not, and of course; derailment about "The poor white person is going to be mistreated now".Let's not talk about what happened, lets talk about hypotheticals and other things. Because then it's almost like it never happened!

It is terrifying how in completely cut and dry situations such as this, you all are still making such reaches to give someone like that the benefit of the doubt or worry about their well being. But not the child's. i mean, sorry; the black mans life and well being. You should do some introspection and ask yourself why this is the time and the place to be talking about some flat out ignorant fools feelings.

 

[Trident]

Right. But it's funny how you people always jump into threads like this to point out how wrong this all is. Well done! You're so concerned about where this could go and others are comparing it to lynch mobs with such fervor. It's beautiful. Tell me, for all the gnashing of teeth that people on the internet talk about in regards to witch hunts and so forth, the giant threads on reddit specifically where so many white people post. When have any of you gone into such a fervor over defending the innocence of black people? Why is it that when these things come up. A child, a child is being bullied and made fun of because of something he had no choice in. You all jump to the bullies feelings, livelihood and richest of all, mental well being?

You all seem to be so educated on the affects of lynching. I'm curious, have you ever researched the effects of racism....the links to physical problems, social problems, emotional problems? Mental problems? Or is racism just "being mean" like so many of you believe. That is has no real world consequences when someones racist? I know why you people think that way, because it doesn't affect you. You get your nice cozy bubbles and you can be as blind as you want to the suffering of others, that in a thread about a child being shat on. The arguments are about the words used, whether things are actually racist or not, and of course; derailment about "The poor white person is going to be mistreated now".Let's not talk about what happened, lets talk about hypotheticals and other things. Because then it's almost like it never happened!

It is terrifying how in completely cut and dry situations such as this, you all are still making such reaches to give someone like that the benefit of the doubt or worry about their well being. But not the child's. i mean, sorry; the black mans life and well being. You should do some introspection and ask yourself why this is the time and the place to be talking about some flat out ignorant fools feelings.

You can be happy at the outcome of something while recognizing the problems with the process. I would be happy if a serial killer was put behind bars, but I would still have a problem is he was put there without due process.

No one here is defending the racism, and there are dozens of pages of people happy that he was fired - including me and the person you were responding to. But you can't use a righteous outcome as a shield against an unjust process (although in this particular case I'm not convinced the process was unjust).

 

[Subpar Spatula]

I agree with his termination. I'm curious to know how this will affect him long term. What if he gets his act together? I think this is a double edged sword in that it will affect people who do better themselves similar to how it's hard for an ex-convict to get hired. I suppose time will tell.

 

[marrec]

You can be happy at the outcome of something while recognizing the problems with the process. I would be happy if a serial killer was put behind bars, but I would still have a problem is he was put there without due process.

No one here is defending the racism, and there are dozens of pages of people happy that he was fired - including me and the person you were responding to. But you can't use a righteous outcome as a shield against an unjust process (although in this particular case I'm not convinced the process was unjust).

I think it worked out perfectly fine in this case, which is why I jumped off my dumb ass hill. There will be plenty of other threads in the future in which I can try and convince people that internet hate mobs are bad for a community but this ain't that thread and never was.

I still don't know who that post is addressing though because it doesn't seem to be addressing me. :lol

I agree with his termination. I'm curious to know how this will affect him long term. What if he gets his act together? I think this is a double edged sword in that it will affect people who do better themselves similar to how it's hard for an ex-convict to get hired. I suppose time will tell.

I like to think that if you are genuine in your change of ways and really make that something that helps define your character going forward then you'll be fine. People and America in particular seem to be very generous at handing out second chances.

 

[Kenai]

This plus your caping for the confederate flag tells me all I need to know. *punt*

But labeling probable racists as probable racists is setting a bad precedent! Who's going to derail the thread with inane bullshi* now?

To be fair, its really really hard to not say something racist on social media. It just comes out from you sometimes, you know? One minute you're liking a high school friend's wedding photos then another minute you're commenting on how those uppity blacks should stop Travonning and get some real jobs.

What? You're not a piece of shit? Well then, I guess you got nothing to worry about.

If they only had the epiphany that they were, in fact, the piece of sh*t they didn't realize they were at the time and actually felt sorry for it rather than feeling sorry for themselves for being caught. But it's almost always the opposite and they start digging their hole even deeper trying to defend their behavior.

It's honestly very sad but to expect me to feel more sorry for them than the actual victims is where i start to have a giggle or w/e.

I disagree with anyone getting fired over any type of comment over social media. What you say on your own time is your own business. No matter how stupid or disgusting the comments are.

I mean when you are talking about professional careers and stuff you have to watch what you say in public places. This isn't new and he's not exactly having to step on eggshells here by not reenacting Trayton or photographing then posting him and his coworker's kid with racist blurbs on the internet where it's a hella lot easier for people to catch you doing it *and* the information is so readily available on a national/global scale.

Companies have to be heavy handed with that sh*t out of necessity. Don't be dumb, end of story (and he was at work anyway)

I like to think that if you are genuine in your change of ways and really make that something that helps define your character going forward then you'll be fine. People and America in particular seem to be very generous at handing out second chances.

This isn't always true but yea a lot of times a heartfelt apology and a wrong being righted out of compassion go a long way.

 

[Azih]

I think being fired for publicly racist behaviour is different from swatting or doxxing or harassing someone on social media. The latter is ugly vigilante mob rule. The former is just.. don't act publicly racist man.

 

[Fularu]

I think he meant the little boy's father.

Oh you're right, I misunderstood him

 

[Zantetsuken]

I think being fired for publicly racist behaviour is different from swatting or doxxing or harassing someone on social media. The latter is ugly vigilante mob rule. The former is just.. don't act publicly racist man.

How about don't act racist publicly or privately?

 

[Bogey]

Not sure I really agree with them being fired. That seems to have become a pretty common way of "mob justics" these days, where the outcry of some vocal community in the internet - sometimes for right reasons, sometimes for willingly or just unknowingly wrong reasons - can pretty much destroy peoples' lives that easily.

When somebody makes a racist remark, we have excellent democratic means available to deal with this, namely our legal system / the courts.
In most countries, and I'm quite sure that goes for the USA as well, that kind of stuff would be illegal. Which means he would get a punishment. Difference being, the severity of that punishment would have been set and legitimized through a democratic system and by will of the entire population, not just by a few people trying to destroy somebody and/or a company trying to avoid a "shitstorm". And also, as anyone should always do, the guys would have had a chance to at least explain and defend themselves, and the court could have objectivel assessed the situation with much more information than internet communities often have.


As for the particular case here, it's well possible they were just plain racist and deserve consequences (in which case -> see legal system).
But it's not necessarily the only possible explanation. Sarcasm or irony, for example, are often verbals forms where you sometimes cannot possibly determine if someone's serious or not, unless you know the context - which often means, knowing the person.

If discussing some political issue, and some left-winged friend of mine says "oh well it's all the immigrants' fault" with an all serious face, pretty easy to know that's a joke. Or maybe even some clever Argumentum ad consequentiam to mock those who actually believe it.
If some right-wing extremist says the very same sentence in a political discussion, on the other hand, odds are he's actually serious about it.
So if people read this comment on Facebook, how could they possibly know the actual meaning without knowing the actual situation and people behind it? Without any further interpretation, this would clearly be an extremely racist comment. Yet depending on the person who said it, it could actually be the exact opposite, but you wouldn't be able to tell without knowing the person. Communication is much, MUCH more than just plain text.

So back to these guys. Can anybody rule out with certainy it's just a bunch of friends with a rather black humor (no pun intended)?
In which case it would've been careless to post in public, yes. In that scenario, you could even argue it was tasteless (but frankly, I've seen worse, just look at Charlie Hebdo's cartoons - and people went out of their way to defend these). But it most likely wouldn't have been something needing any kind of punishment.

And for the record, I'm not saying that's what's actually happened. And I certainly don't want to defend them, as I simply can't know what's actually true.
Just saying there isn't necessarily just one possible explanation. And if in doubt, it may be better to leave the evaluation of that to the actual legal system, instead of buying a pitchfork. If it turns out this was racist indeed, they will bear the legal consequences, that should be enough.

 

[Netherscourge]

If you're dumb enough to go public with your racism, you deserve to get fired.

There is no law that protects an employee from shining a bad light on their employer without employer repercussions, whether it's intentional or unintentional. Anyone who invokes the 1st Amendment/Freedom of Speech has no idea what they are talking about and should start researching it more. It does NOT protect you.

Even in a WHISTLEBLOWER situation, a company can fire you outright.

Furthermore, the man gave up his right to privacy when he posted his racist thoughts online for him and his friends to joke about.

Don't want to get fired from your job? Don't be openly racist. If you like dehumanizing people for giggles and don't want to have repercussions, do it in private, offline, by yourself, in your house.

It's that simple.

 

[Subpar Spatula]

I like to think that if you are genuine in your change of ways and really make that something that helps define your character going forward then you'll be fine. People and America in particular seem to be very generous at handing out second chances.

Second chances aren't that big of a thing. Job prospects for ex-convicts are quite low, and in an era of social filtering during the hiring process you're going to see some people not hired because of the stigma attached to them. Nothing too concrete but in time we'll tell as we're just starting to see this occur.

 

[CharlieDigital]

Not sure I really agree with them being fired.

This was a not even a stranger; this was the son of a co-worker. How would you imagine that office environment in the aftermath?

When somebody makes a racist remark, we have excellent democratic means available to deal with this, namely our legal system / the courts.
In most countries, and I'm quite sure that goes for the USA as well, that kind of stuff would be illegal.

We have this thing called the first amendment. Check it out some time.

As for the particular case here, it's well possible they were just plain racist and deserve consequences (in which case -> see legal system).
But it's not necessarily the only possible explanation. Sarcasm or irony, for example, are often verbals forms where you sometimes cannot possibly determine if someone's serious or not, unless you know the context - which often means, knowing the person.

 

[Azih]

How about don't act racist publicly or privately?

Well of course.

 

[CrushDance]

*Sigh*

 

[jmood88]

Not sure I really agree with them being fired. That seems to have become a pretty common way of "mob justics" these days, where the outcry of some vocal community in the internet - sometimes for right reasons, sometimes for willingly or just unknowingly wrong reasons - can pretty much destroy peoples' lives that easily.

When somebody makes a racist remark, we have excellent democratic means available to deal with this, namely our legal system / the courts.
In most countries, and I'm quite sure that goes for the USA as well, that kind of stuff would be illegal. Which means he would get a punishment. Difference being, the severity of that punishment would have been set and legitimized through a democratic system and by will of the entire population, not just by a few people trying to destroy somebody and/or a company trying to avoid a "shitstorm". And also, as anyone should always do, the guys would have had a chance to at least explain and defend themselves, and the court could have objectivel assessed the situation with much more information than internet communities often have.


As for the particular case here, it's well possible they were just plain racist and deserve consequences (in which case -> see legal system).
But it's not necessarily the only possible explanation. Sarcasm or irony, for example, are often verbals forms where you sometimes cannot possibly determine if someone's serious or not, unless you know the context - which often means, knowing the person.

If discussing some political issue, and some left-winged friend of mine says "oh well it's all the immigrants' fault" with an all serious face, pretty easy to know that's a joke. Or maybe even some clever Argumentum ad consequentiam to mock those who actually believe it.
If some right-wing extremist says the very same sentence in a political discussion, on the other hand, odds are he's actually serious about it.
So if people read this comment on Facebook, how could they possibly know the actual meaning without knowing the actual situation and people behind it? Without any further interpretation, this would clearly be an extremely racist comment. Yet depending on the person who said it, it could actually be the exact opposite, but you wouldn't be able to tell without knowing the person. Communication is much, MUCH more than just plain text.

So back to these guys. Can anybody rule out with certainy it's just a bunch of friends with a rather black humor (no pun intended)?
In which case it would've been careless to post in public, yes. In that scenario, you could even argue it was tasteless (but frankly, I've seen worse, just look at Charlie Hebdo's cartoons - and people went out of their way to defend these). But it most likely wouldn't have been something needing any kind of punishment.

And for the record, I'm not saying that's what's actually happened. And I certainly don't want to defend them, as I simply can't know what's actually true.
Just saying there isn't necessarily just one possible explanation. And if in doubt, it may be better to leave the evaluation of that to the actual legal system, instead of buying a pitchfork. If it turns out this was racist indeed, they will bear the legal consequences, that should be enough.

What in the world are you talking about? There is no legal recourse for this.

 

[Bogey]

This was a not even a stranger; this was the son of a co-worker. How would you imagine that office environment in the aftermath?

Well first of all, to my understanding one of these involved didn't work at that company and was fired from his own job anyway.

As for the other ones - yes, there's definitely a conflict of work. In which case the employer should assess the situation to rule out what I described above. If they conclude it was indeed racist, fair enough to fire them. Given how quick it seemed to happen, I'm not sure they actually did a proper investigation though.
For the record, there have been plenty of cases lately where fired employes sued their way back into their old jobs, because it turned out companies just took any complaints for granted and didn't check them at all. I'm not sure the legal system allows this in any country though, USA in particular? So that's not just some theoretical issue. It actually does happen in reality.

A good example of how ambiguos communication can be. I don't actually have a clue what that picture is supposed to mean?!

Anyways, I've given a pretty specific example of how a sentence can have completely contrarian meanings in spite of the exact same phrasing, just and only depending on the person saying it.
Do you disagree with this? If not, what makes the comments from the OP fundamentally different in a way in which this basic principle of communication could under no reasonable circumstances apply?

 

[Netherscourge]

Well first of all, to my understanding one of these involved didn't work at that company and was fired from his own job anyway.

As for the other ones - yes, there's definitely a conflict of work. In which case the employer should assess the situation to rule out what I described above. If they conclude it was indeed racist, fair enough to fire them. Given how quick it seemed to happen, I'm not sure they actually did a proper investigation though.
For the record, there have been plenty of cases lately where fired employes sued their way back into their old jobs, because it turned out companies just took any complaints for granted and didn't check them at all. I'm not sure the legal system allows this in any country though, USA in particular? So that's not just some theoretical issue. It actually does happen in reality.

A good example of how ambiguos communication can be. I don't actually have a clue what that picture is supposed to mean?!

Anyways, I've given a pretty specific example of how a sentence can have completely contrarian meanings in spite of the exact same phrasing, just and only depending on the person saying it.
Do you disagree with this? If not, what makes the comments from the OP fundamentally different in a way in which this basic principle of communication could under no reasonable circumstances apply?

ha - I want to see this guy sue his way back to his job.

I can't wait to see what other social media postings by him are revealed in that investigation.

 

[CharlieDigital]

Well first of all, to my understanding one of these involved didn't work at that company and was fired from his own job anyway.

As for the other ones - yes, there's definitely a conflict of work. In which case the employer should assess the situation to rule out what I described above. If they conclude it was indeed racist, fair enough to fire them. Given how quick it seemed to happen, I'm not sure they actually did a proper investigation though.
For the record, there have been plenty of cases lately where fired employes sued their way back into their old jobs, because it turned out companies just took any complaints for granted and didn't check them at all. I'm not sure the legal system allows this in any country though, USA in particular? So that's not just some theoretical issue. It actually does happen in reality.

If these other cohorts of his are acting this way, don't you think that an employer should consider how they would treat minority customers in their interactions with them? Don't you think that employers should be concerned about how they work with minority co-workers? Every one of them should be fired because they are a liability. If I had an employee and I found out that he/she was openly racist, he/she would be terminated immediately because I'd have strong concerns about his/her ability to collaborate with minority coworkers, interact with minority customers without insulting them, and giving the company a bad image as one welcoming bigotry.

 

[Bogey]

What in the world are you talking about? There is no legal recourse for this.

Seriously?
I don't know the U.S. legal system to well, so have to believe you if you say so. But I can guarantee these statements would get you a pretty hefty fine where I'm from, if the court rules they were said in a racist context.
And that's not for the lack of free speech in my country, that is in fact held up very high. But of course it's limited by a few factors, stuff like racism being one of them.

So even in that case, I'd have to agree and say.. well that sucks. But in that case, I still don't think mobbing them down is a great way - instead, go lobby your representatives to pass laws to make racist remarks illegal, if not already the case.

 

[Frodo]

I for one was laughing out loud hysterically when reading about the amount of people being fired over this. Serves them well, and it IS well justified. I work with people from all different backgrounds and I'm sure that if I made a racist comment online I would be fired, and it is not hard to understand why.

 

[mr2xxx]

Outrage culture at work. Cue the the I'm ok with it gif.

 

[cwmartin]

"Oh won't someone think of the racist?!"

Fuck him

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Seriously?
I don't know the U.S. legal system to well, so have to believe you if you say so. But I can guarantee these statements would get you a pretty hefty fine where I'm from, if the court rules they were said in a racist context.
And that's not for the lack of free speech in my country, that is in fact held up very high. But of course it's limited by a few factors, stuff like racism being one of them.

So even in that case, I'd have to agree and say.. well that sucks. But in that case, I still don't think mobbing them down is a great way - instead, go lobby your representatives to pass laws to make racist remarks illegal, if not already the case.

No, there is no legal recourse in the U.S. where somebody can be fined or punished by the government for saying racist things.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

Jeez, I was not prepared for a freaking congregation of racist comments. WTF sort of social circles do some people have on facebook? How do that many people feel comfortable to say that shit on the record publicly?

 

[CharlieDigital]

Seriously?
I don't know the U.S. legal system to well, so have to believe you if you say so. But I can guarantee these statements would get you a pretty hefty fine where I'm from, if the court rules they were said in a racist context.
And that's not for the lack of free speech in my country, that is in fact held up very high. But of course it's limited by a few factors, stuff like racism being one of them.

So even in that case, I'd have to agree and say.. well that sucks. But in that case, I still don't think mobbing them down is a great way - instead, go lobby your representatives to pass laws to make racist remarks illegal, if not already the case.

Racist remarks are not illegal; that would defeat the purpose of free speech. In the US, you are free to be as racist, homophobic, and bigoted in speech and thought as you like. But your company can also fire you for expressing that hate.

 

[TheSpoiler]

Seriously?
I don't know the U.S. legal system to well, so have to believe you if you say so. But I can guarantee these statements would get you a pretty hefty fine where I'm from, if the court rules they were said in a racist context.
And that's not for the lack of free speech in my country, that is in fact held up very high. But of course it's limited by a few factors, stuff like racism being one of them.

So even in that case, I'd have to agree and say.. well that sucks. But in that case, I still don't think mobbing them down is a great way - instead, go lobby your representatives to pass laws to make racist remarks illegal, if not already the case.

Where are you from that you can go to jail for saying racist comments online?

 

[CrushDance]

Not sure I really agree with them being fired. That seems to have become a pretty common way of "mob justics" these days, where the outcry of some vocal community in the internet - sometimes for right reasons, sometimes for willingly or just unknowingly wrong reasons - can pretty much destroy peoples' lives that easily.

When somebody makes a racist remark, we have excellent democratic means available to deal with this, namely our legal system / the courts.
In most countries, and I'm quite sure that goes for the USA as well, that kind of stuff would be illegal. Which means he would get a punishment. Difference being, the severity of that punishment would have been set and legitimized through a democratic system and by will of the entire population, not just by a few people trying to destroy somebody and/or a company trying to avoid a "shitstorm". And also, as anyone should always do, the guys would have had a chance to at least explain and defend themselves, and the court could have objectivel assessed the situation with much more information than internet communities often have.


As for the particular case here, it's well possible they were just plain racist and deserve consequences (in which case -> see legal system).
But it's not necessarily the only possible explanation. Sarcasm or irony, for example, are often verbals forms where you sometimes cannot possibly determine if someone's serious or not, unless you know the context - which often means, knowing the person.

If discussing some political issue, and some left-winged friend of mine says "oh well it's all the immigrants' fault" with an all serious face, pretty easy to know that's a joke. Or maybe even some clever Argumentum ad consequentiam to mock those who actually believe it.
If some right-wing extremist says the very same sentence in a political discussion, on the other hand, odds are he's actually serious about it.
So if people read this comment on Facebook, how could they possibly know the actual meaning without knowing the actual situation and people behind it? Without any further interpretation, this would clearly be an extremely racist comment. Yet depending on the person who said it, it could actually be the exact opposite, but you wouldn't be able to tell without knowing the person. Communication is much, MUCH more than just plain text.

So back to these guys. Can anybody rule out with certainy it's just a bunch of friends with a rather black humor (no pun intended)?
In which case it would've been careless to post in public, yes. In that scenario, you could even argue it was tasteless (but frankly, I've seen worse, just look at Charlie Hebdo's cartoons - and people went out of their way to defend these). But it most likely wouldn't have been something needing any kind of punishment.

And for the record, I'm not saying that's what's actually happened. And I certainly don't want to defend them, as I simply can't know what's actually true.
Just saying there isn't necessarily just one possible explanation. And if in doubt, it may be better to leave the evaluation of that to the actual legal system, instead of buying a pitchfork. If it turns out this was racist indeed, they will bear the legal consequences, that should be enough.

I used to think white privilege was a joke.

Literally. What is the honest to God reason for white people or any majority in any situation, to give a shit about the minority? You know why this ancient Ghost of racism is still such a big deal in "The great western world"? Because you're people. And as long as you're people, you're going to have biases--silent or loud, and very few will willingly put their own necks on the line and face the wrath of their own majority. Even here on glorious GAF, where everyone bitches and moans about people being "Too PC" and "easily offended", sometimes we'll have a pretty nice thread about racial dynamics, and people will straight up say "Oh gee, my grandmother, father, mother, brother, sister, auntie, uncle, etc is racist as fuck" or "I hate this holiday because my family is racist as fuck" and then always follow it up with "But I never confront them because they're family and I don't want to cause trouble". In their own families. Where you can candidly say things, they don't do this. And you expect that through the sheer goodness of peoples hearts they'll be completely objective and seek "justice" or cut out people from society over race? hah. Racism is taken lightly because it doesn't affect most white people, but you can write a TV show about a black cop killing a white kid and that'll gain interest. But write one about reality? About a white cop killing a black kid?...well, that'd just be weird wouldn't it. Because we already know how that would turn out. People would be "uncomfortable", it wouldn't "sell well", people wouldn't be "able to relate". And do you know why? Because shocker of all shocks, there'd be no false narrative, no "what if's", "ands" or "buts". That cop would just be guilty and people would have to actually ask themselves some uncomfortable questions about other real world situations then. So no, let's examine it from the perspective of the poor white kid getting shot. Because that's what this has always been about, even in this very thread. "But what about the white guy?" And that, is the joy of being the majoirty. That is the privilege that some enjoy. Because even in the most blunt and to the point situations, things get contrived, twisted, hypothetical scenarios are made up, excuses are given...but the black kid, the black person? "Lets wait for the facts".

Fact is this, until situations like these happen and people can say "That was socially wrong to treat someone like that, and there should be therefore punishment should be metered out by agreed upon terms of society" instead of all the dumbfuckery, things will never change. Because the subtext to so many of these incidents is always "Well I wouldn't want punishment for saying something like that on social media". Social. Social. Media. Does that not ring a bell to any of you? If it's socially acceptable to tlak about a group of people in such a manner, why is it then not socially acceptable to mistreat them with those thoughts? And so you see, people pretend to be just peachy, but then behind back doors spew racist shit and we wonder why there's a race problem that won't go away. It's simple, people don't want it too. It's the same reason that the higher up you are in politics or power, the less laws apply to you, and the less laws you want to pass that could potentially smack you for doing dumb shit.

Now go on. Deny that there is a power structure to race.

 

[shintoki]

I for one was laughing out loud hysterically when reading about the amount of people being fired over this. Serves them well, and it IS well justified. I work with people from all different backgrounds and I'm sure that if I made a racist comment online I would be fired, and it is not hard to understand why.

I think its funnier how deluded some of them are.

Rather than just saying, Sorry, I need to work on myself and become a respectable adult. You get the... Well its just a joke. I'm not racist. Well I didn't mean it like that. Stop calling me out. This is what it should be. Take the consequences for your actions and amend it.

 

[CharlieDigital]

I think its funnier how deluded some of them are.

Rather than just saying, Sorry, I need to work on myself and become a respectable adult. You get the... Well its just a joke. I'm not racist. Well I didn't mean it like that. Stop calling me out.

Are there links to this aside from the one from Tim Zheng?

I want to get a headcount of all of the dumbasses that got fired for this.

 

[Finn of Ooo]

Dudes firing is completely justifiable, you market yourself to employers in any field and this just shows that your "product" has major flaws. No one is going to buy an identifiably flawed product.

Stupid of him to harbor these views, stupid of his friends for harboring these views, stupid to blast those views out into a public forum. You make bad choices, you deal with the consequences. He deserves it and I feel no sympathy for him.

 

[bishoptl]

And for the record, I'm not saying that's what's actually happened. And I certainly don't want to defend them, as I simply can't know what's actually true.
Just saying there isn't necessarily just one possible explanation. And if in doubt, it may be better to leave the evaluation of that to the actual legal system, instead of buying a pitchfork. If it turns out this was racist indeed

fuck outta here

 

[Infinite]

Get fucked.

 

[xKilltheMx]

fuck outta here

god damn.
Guess we see what happens when you play devils advocate here.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

god damn.
Guess we see what happens when you play devils advocate here.

You have to wonder why people are so into doing that mostly in race or gender topics, though.

Not sure how any logical person can look at all of those people casually dropping racist comments about the kid as a slave or feral animal and genuinely post "If it turns out this was racist."

 

[Ninja Scooter]

We should definitely trust in the legal system and the government to handle any racial issues as they've proven to be so good at it in the past.

 

[xKilltheMx]

You have to wonder why people are so into doing that mostly in race or gender topics, though.

Not sure how any logical person can look at all of those people casually dropping racist comments about the kid as a slave or feral animal and genuinely post "If it turns out this was racist."

It's always seemingly only those topics for some weird reason.
I wonder who is usually bothered by those topics the most...hmm...

 

[dave is ok]

god damn.
Guess we see what happens when you play devils advocate here.

He wasn't playing devils advocate, he was playing white devils advocate.

Honestly, what kind of person posts a photo of a co-workers child just to mock it on a public webpage with his buddies? Even ignoring the blatant racism completely he should have been fired. It's a kid

 

[CrushDance]

god damn.
Guess we see what happens when you play devils advocate here.

The fucked up part is that nobody does this in threads about gay people and sexual assault. But race...everyones got some explanation as to why it isn't racism. As if by somehow saying "Yeah this is racism and we should as a society do something about it", just turns to random philosophical bullshit.

Imagine that. Imagine a bunch of people, companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Reddit(lol), all lobbying congress to enact laws to punish such behaviour. Imagine having a day where Google.com was about black people. Could you imagine the...outrage. I've noticed something, black people in themselves don't matter unless it somehow involves white people. "You want change. Good luck doing it without us." Is what they always say, and it's made even funnier by the fact that it's true, because white people hold all the power. Because it was set up that way. And so there's this smugness about it all, "You can't enact laws that could potentially hurt white people for being racist" and "If it doesn't involve us, we don't really care to be honest".

That's why I don't even give a fuck anymore. Yell it from the rooftops I say when you see racism. At least we have that!

 

[Negator]

god damn.
Guess we see what happens when you play devils advocate here.

Usually in threads like this they are more of a devil's apologist.

Playing the 'You don't know what really happened!' Card with mountains of evidence of the dude being a racist shit is really just stupid.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

Nah, fuck that guy. That kind of casual racism is all too common and it's about time people started paying the consequences for that bullshit.

 

[xKilltheMx]

He wasn't playing devils advocate, he was playing white devils advocate.

Honestly, what kind of person posts a photo of a co-workers child just to mock it on a public webpage with his buddies? Even ignoring the blatant racism completely he should have been fired. It's a kid

The fucked up part is that nobody does this in threads about gay people and sexual assault. But race...everyones got some explanation as to why it isn't racism. As if by somehow saying "Yeah this is racism and we should as a society do something about it", just turns to random philosophical bullshit.

Imagine that. Imagine a bunch of people, companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Reddit(lol), all lobbying congress to enact laws to punish such behaviour. Imagine having a day where Google.com was about black people. Could you imagine the...outrage. I've noticed something, black people in themselves don't matter unless it somehow involves white people. "You want change. Good luck doing it without us." Is what they always say, and it's made even funnier by the fact that it's true, because white people hold all the power. Because it was set up that way. And so there's this smugness about it all, "You can't enact laws that could potentially hurt white people for being racist" and "If it doesn't involve us, we don't really care to be honest".

That's why I don't even give a fuck anymore. Yell it from the rooftops I say when you see racism. At least we have that!

Usually in threads like this they are more of a devil's apologist.

Playing the 'You don't know what really happened!' Card with mountains of evidence of the dude being a racist shit is really just stupid.

Oh I agree with it it's just nice to see people get called out on their apologist shit.

 

[sir_kevith]

But the real-life child and his mom should understand those facebook people were just being ironic! The mom should laugh at her son and make slave jokes too cause he'll understand and laugh at his own appearance. This is all appropriate behavior for coworkers.

People are really trying to excuse this? If i had friends and family doing this shit they'd be hereby banished.

 

[Kreed]

You can be happy at the outcome of something while recognizing the problems with the process. I would be happy if a serial killer was put behind bars, but I would still have a problem is he was put there without due process.

No one here is defending the racism, and there are dozens of pages of people happy that he was fired - including me and the person you were responding to. But you can't use a righteous outcome as a shield against an unjust process (although in this particular case I'm not convinced the process was unjust).

I understand what you're trying to argue, but you need to distinguish between actual cases of "mob justice" and what generally happens when people use social media publicly and poorly like in this example. In this case, social media users expressing anger over individuals posting offensive comments publicly on the internet and their employers firing them aren't examples of "mob justice", they're examples of companies trying to maintain a good public image and it is their right to fire these individuals after being alerted of these actions by the public.

An actual example of "mob justice" would be if the social media users who were upset and offended by this began attacking these individuals in public, sending them death threats, or vandalized their homes to enact vengeance. As marrec said, this isn't the thread to be discussing "mob justice", because that's not what's happening here.

 

[RELIGHT]

You just can't make this shit up

 

[statuez]

fuck outta here

 

[MIMIC]

Sarcasm or irony, for example, are often verbals forms where you sometimes cannot possibly determine if someone's serious or not, unless you know the context - which often means, knowing the person.

If discussing some political issue, and some left-winged friend of mine says "oh well it's all the immigrants' fault" with an all serious face, pretty easy to know that's a joke. Or maybe even some clever Argumentum ad consequentiam to mock those who actually believe it.
If some right-wing extremist says the very same sentence in a political discussion, on the other hand, odds are he's actually serious about it.
So if people read this comment on Facebook, how could they possibly know the actual meaning without knowing the actual situation and people behind it? Without any further interpretation, this would clearly be an extremely racist comment. Yet depending on the person who said it, it could actually be the exact opposite, but you wouldn't be able to tell without knowing the person. Communication is much, MUCH more than just plain text.

So back to these guys. Can anybody rule out with certainy it's just a bunch of friends with a rather black humor (no pun intended)?

Analyzing whether a racist statement on its face is racist or not. And you want people to go BEYOND the context (lol), and into the personality of the person who said it.

 

[Trident]

I understand what you're trying to argue, but you need to distinguish between actual cases of "mob justice" and what generally happens when people use social media publicly and poorly like in this example. In this case, social media users expressing anger over individuals posting offensive comments publicly on the internet and their employers firing them aren't examples of "mob justice", they're examples of companies trying to maintain a good public image and it is their right to fire these individuals after being alerted of these actions by the public.

An actual example of "mob justice" would be if the social media users who were upset and offended by this began attacking these individuals in public, sending them death threats, or vandalized their homes to enact vengeance. As marrec said, this isn't the thread to be discussing "mob justice", because that's not what's happening here.

Yeah I agree with all of this.