How do you feel about people who call the employer of someone who posts something racist or homophobic on social media?
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Jons_Blond (
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June 21st, 2020
from iPhone
I don’t know if this is a new trend but I see a lot of this these days, especially the past month.
For example: a local activist I follow on FB continually blasts people for saying racists things. He shares the person’s FB page and screenshots the offensive posts. His followers then contact the person’s employer to tell them of the racist things they said.
Today he is blasting a school teacher. There’s a news post about a black man who assaulted a nurse at a health clinic. The teacher posted this “I’m waiting for the outcry over this because he’s black and really didn’t mean to do it.”
Should her employer, a local school district, be contacted because of her comments on Facebook?
I’ll put this in social if anyone wants to chime in on cancel culture in the entertainment industry as well.
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27 Answers
I think there are a lot of people that cause too much trouble in this world. Maybe I’m too jaded, but the comment the teacher made on Facebook didn’t look racist too me. It looked more like an indictment of today’s society. And if someone calls up her employer to claim she is posting racist things, that is just wrong. That person is taking it upon themselves to assign meaning to what she wrote, intent, and then to act upon their own decisions. Now, if the teacher was spouting the joys of the KKK or how Hitler was actually onto something with ethnic cleansing or something equally bizarre, I might raise a concern since she is interacting with students. But even then, the solution to that is to set up cameras in her classroom for a month to see what her interactions with the class look like. Is she spewing the same hatred to them? But claiming someone is racist is getting worn extremely thin. It is being weaponized and used to gain power over others.
I see posts worthy of reporting such as a Mo cop telling people to mow down protesters.
The best idea is to be very careful what you post in social media so these social justice warriors have no ammunition. Or just don’t be a jerk and hide all personal info.
It depends on the situation. Violent, dangerous people need to be reported. What’s really disturbing is how easily employers can be convinced to terminate someone just because some busybody was offended by something they said.
For the most part I don’t agree with telling an employer what an employee is doing outside of work, and especially not blasting it on social media. If it is behavior that could actually endanger other employees at work, then maybe I would call, but I still wouldn’t go the route of social media I don’t think. If it is that scary I would tell the cops possibly.
I feel that IF everybody minded their own business as much as they mind other people’s business, this world would be better off!!!
They are out there.
So, unti Social Media posts are protected speech, which they are not, I would suggest people should probably limit any posts on social media to things like “It’s a beautiful day” or “I love my cat”.
In this particular circumstance, I don’t know what point she was trying to make. That a public outcry will be made because he is a black man (possibly true, possibly not racist); that he didn’t mean to rape someone (what does that even mean??) or is there an underlying message against men or black men, in particular (potentially highly racist)?
I don’t care that people are losing their jobs for public racism. If my son was a young black man, would I trust her to provide high-quality education for him? I don’t know – I still don’t know what her comment meant. She probably should communicate better, as an educator.
But I think that just as we can now easily judge individuals for their potentially racist comments and behaviors through social media, we can also judge companies and organizations that fire people. If I think her firing is bogus, I can then take the school district to task for that.
The fact of the matter is that cameras are everywhere. There is increased scrutiny of behavior that was previously accepted that now is viewed as sexist or racist. I don’t care if people get fired over it. In some circumstances, I don’t care if employers ignore it. There are too many variables to make sweeping rules.
I agree with @josie somewhat. Use social media to connect with people, show what you’re working on, put some positivity in the world — not as a public journal of all your personal, political thoughts.
Keep those for private conversations or, if you’re so inclined, attending protests or writing your politician of choice.
I think if someone posts something about wanting to hurt others or hurt themselves (i.e. going to blow up a building or that they’re depressed and going to kill themselves today), then it’s fine for the employer or other authorities to be notified. Anything else, I don’t think it’s appropriate to call the employer. Not every employer is going to fire the individual anyway, for expressing prejudiced views, especially if there’s a union involved.
I appreciate all the comments.
Update about the specific example I shared. The school district fired the teacher today.
I can’t imagine how sad and pathetic a persons life must be, for them to put so much effort into ruining a strangers career.
@cheebdragon Just curious if you’d feel the same on outting a racist?
Theres a confederate store in Branson, Mo and one woman screamed at protesters she’d ‘teach my grandkids to hate you’. Now everyone is trying to find Kathy to beat her butt or burn her house or anything they can.
She is on camera with no shame being loud and nasty. Does she deserve whatever she gets or no?
I’m on the fence with all of this. I think if a person posts a specific threat then they should be called out. I don’t think a person should be fired for posting an ignorant statement.
The greatest lesson here is to not share where you work on a public forum.
^^ Or…don’t post things on a public forum you wouldn’t want your boss to see.
I’m not so sure that it even matters if your boss cares or not. I’m not even sure that it matters if someone really said something worthy of reporting. It becomes public perception at this point and most companies would probably rather just terminate the employee than deal with a PR issue. If someone is being a racist POS then it’ll probably catch up to them and in the end it’s really none of my business as long as they are not making threats or doing anything illegal.
@KNOWITALL It was a short video but it didn’t appear like she was physically hurting anyone or breaking any laws, and she certainly didn’t do anything that would justify burning down her house or beating her up. The only thing she’s guilty of is being a dumb trashy bitch with a loud mouth.
@cheebdragon We’ll see how it goes. Unfortunately the store owners are tied to the Arkansas Klan leader so it’s a pretty big upsetting situation down the road.
@cheebdragon The store owner’s father is Thomas Robb. Took over as National Director of the KKK from David Duke.
@KNOWITALL I would not be surprised if they sell KKK regalia in a back room then.
@AreYou I wouldn’t either. We have 7 different marches for different things this weekend plus prom. Typical Missouri.
@cheebdragon I don’t get the funny part?
@KNOWITALL Wait, you were serious? People are pissed off at the owner of the store because of who his father is? The hypocrisy in it is so ridiculous, I thought you were kidding.
@cheebdragon Oh yeah, deadly serious. Protests again this weekend. Third weekend in a row.
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