I have previously written about the increasing monitoring and discipline of teachers for conduct in their private lives. In San Diego, three high school coaches and a volunteer teacher were suspended for wearing costumes with black face at a Halloween party. They were not doing a minstrel show but were going as the Jamaican bobsled team featured in “Cool Runnings.” The party was at the San Diego State University.
The punished individuals include the varsity head football coach, an assistant coach and a teacher at Serra High School will be suspended. Notably, a volunteer will also be suspended.
People can debate whether wearing makeup to look like a Jamaican bobsled time is racist. My concern is purely one of free of expression and association for teachers. This was not a criminal act. They were not participating in a KKK cross burning. They clearly do not believe that wearing black makeup is racist or wrong. They have a right to make such decisions in their private lives. Nevertheless, both the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League supported action to be taken against the teachers and coach.
I certainly understand why many find black face to be offensive and I am surprised that people continue to use it in costumes. However, free speech and association protects different values and expressions. Citizens are not required to satisfy majoritarian views on proper humor or, as the English call it, “fancy dress.”
Superintendent Cindy Marten took the group out for a public lashing, stating that “[t]hey send their apologies to any person or group of people they have offended and want to make it clear it was not their intention to offend anyone.” She called it a “critical teachable moment” but what does it teach about free speech and privacy for public teachers?
Lei-Chala Wilson, President of the NAACP’s San Diego Branch, praised the discipline and added “We found nothing funny when we saw that picture was posted.” The concern is that public teachers should not have to satisfy others in their private lives as to whether the public finds their jokes funny or their associations acceptable. I was struck how it was simply assumed that such private conduct off-hours are naturally the subject of public discipline and accountability.
What do you think?
It’s okay. I revised. 😉
It’s an employer disciplining employees. The fact that the employer is a school isn’t really the issue. They weren’t arrested or charged with a crime. They weren’t sent off to Obama’s FEMA camps, so the penalty they suffered as a result of being giant jerks is fairly minimal. Any other time, you folks screaming about freedom of speech would be complaining about the employees and saying if they don’t like the rules, they can find other jobs.
Juliet,
your comment is now released. I think it may have something to do with your use of the d—-bag word. But I don’t know for sure.
LK,
One thing for certain… The folks here are generally well read….
Seriously? The filter is that sensitive? It needs to join us in adult world. I have a comment caught. Feel free to substitute the offending word with “jerks,” if necessary.
lotta,
I released your comment from comment prison!
What Mike A. said.
Lost another comment, can someone find it please?
AY, When I read the Professor’s posting I thought of that video- it’s choice and the only way sports should be played IMO and also probably the only way anyone is going to do the Jamaican bobsled team without recrimination. Thanks for posting it, it was needed.
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Regarding who can be fired for what: At-will employees can be fired for any non-discriminatory reason the boss wants, even if it’s that the boss doesn’t like the color of shirts you wear. People that have personal contracts, or work for a company/organization that has posted rules and/or a disciplinary procedures are in better shape but those generally comes with what used to be called ‘morals clauses’. If what you do is embarrassing to, or diminishes the reputation/acceptance of, the employers then you’re gone. There’s a lot of play in what that means too.
Same for not hiring someone. Checking social media is becoming sop for hiring.
Be careful what you put on the Interwebs today, it can come back to haunt your butt later. I tell my hypothetical kids that all the time 🙂
Lotta, I too used to be a union official, OCAW 4-227 and it would have been a really valid grievance if the company had done any such thing as the school district did to these teachers who WERE government employees by the way. They are also UNION members, so I hope that you would process and fight for them in this case too. Absent any link between them and their school district in their case, they have full rights of freedom of expression. To say that what they did is tantamount to being KKKers is bizarre.
I see that NONE of the objectors to this costume have answered my question as to what should be done about teaching Huck FInn in our schools. Of course, most people know that this book is the beginning of truly, modern American literature. It is the fountainhead of our literature. I know that lots of black Americans find the use of the word Nigger Jim is offensive. So therefore if we go by the lowest common denominator of those who can possibly be offended, then I can only conclude that ALL of you are in favor of censoring this book and banning it from our English lit courses. Mark Twain would have gotten a laugh out of that too by the way. Read how he skewered such people back in his day about purging and Bowlderizing Shakespeare and others.
Reasoned, measured, knowledgeable and commonsensical. Mike Appleton wins the thread.
1. Blackface has been and always will be a racist expression. People who do not understand that fact and the history behind it may be well-intentioned, but they are embarrassingly ignorant.
2. The wearing of a Halloween costume during a person’s private time should never be the subject of disciplinary proceedings. The First Amendment protects the obtuse as well as the clever. The public ridicule occasioned by this particular display of cloddishness (is that a word?) is understandable, but nothing further should have happened.
With the way racism is defined by some people, it seems we need a law prohibiting discrimination against racists.
Streak breaker.
“Expose” being the key word.
“Thankfully there are people like Mr. Turley that present posts like this to expose just how people think on this issue.”
I find it amusing when I see commenters on a blog pandering to the host. Some people assume to know the purpose of the host’s blog post, when the host never stated any such motive for writing the post.
Pol Pot’s camps certainly were “For teaching people to be sensitive and respectful for the feelings and beliefs of others.” They taught the people they didn’t murder to be sensitive and respectful for the government making the laws which enslaved them. People like myself, our host, and others are not bigots because we understand the First Amendment is messy. When I think of all the problems we have w/ race, class, etc. and then I read all this hand wringing about this inane costume I just say WTF?? The First Amendment says NOTHING about sensitivity. Ideologues on the left and right want to control speech. Thankfully there are people like Mr. Turley that present posts like this to expose just how people think on this issue. It is important for people who believe in the First Amendment to clearly see the thought process and tactics of demonization employed to get folks, “Mind’s right,” just like the bosses tried w/ Cool Hand Luke and Pol Pot did in the Killing Fields.
Pol Pot into this discussion is ridiculous, inane and beneath the dignity of discussion.
Pol Pot had nothing of the kind. He had a camps all right, but they were not for teaching people how to be sensitive and respectful for the beliefs and feelings of others.
Political “re-education” camps are not about any kind of sensitivity.
Pol Pot had entire camps to teach sensitivity training.
Silly, hyperbolic and executed in a disingenuous manner, Nick S. loses the thread.
Randyjet,
I am sure you are aware of the incident involving Southwest pilot James F. Taylor who went on a profane rant in the cockpit with his mike key stuck open. Southwest suspended him for a time, but allowed him to come back to work. Here is the open letter he wrote to other employees of the airline:
Although he went back to work, I don’t know if that written apology was enough. If I were Capt. Taylor, I would be uneasy about eating or drinking anything a flight attendant brought me.
Here is a link to the rant, but this is absolutely NSFW.
http://youtu.be/ilQHP8PgHWs