Fired up

A friend of mine lost his job recently.

I found out when I heard his voice over the news. I looked, and yes, that was his face, and his name, and him being interviewed about the job loss.

He had, in frustration over how black lives are given less value by law enforcement and media, posted something on Facebook about how we should see cops die, and then there is the funeral and honors and everyone grieves and it was completely different. That went viral, and his employer fired him.

(I am not going to name him or his employer, but if you're interested and have not heard of it, it can be found. Honestly a lot of the online coverage has not been very good reporting, but for the interview that I saw, I believe he represented himself well.)

My first response was to groan and think "Why?", but I still felt that the firing was unfair. I went to the employer's site and complained. I was generically thanked for that feedback, which meant absolutely nothing, but I also got a fair amount of blowback from other people who saw it, and there were some interesting things about that.

One is that my friend later told me that the post that went viral showed an edited page, and he didn't know how that happened. He still had posted something, and Oregon is still at-will employment, so that doesn't make as much difference as it could, but that still bothered me.

Also, one of the replies that I got to my post came right out and said that people were searching for posts in support of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, and those people were being reported to their employers. I had known about the police calling at least one Ferguson protester's employer. That was in person, but I couldn't really be surprised that there was online targeting happening, and that probably explains how my friend's post got picked up.

In addition, apparently I almost got a threat. My sister saw one person ask how my employer would feel about my comments. When I went to look, it was gone, probably because nothing I said was really incriminating. I said that it was unfair to fire him over personal speech, and that it was also very clear that the post was not an actual call for violence - not terribly extreme.

It was interesting that anyone jumped on my post at all. I did write it on the page, but it was not linked to a post about the firing or an article. Again, it lends credibility to people being out there looking for things to jump on.

Their arguments actually reinforced my support for my friend. I thought what he posted was a poor choice, but all of the complaints that came at me, and initial posts on articles I saw, were saying how they would be afraid to shop at the store where he worked. I don't believe them for a minute. I know he's not dangerous. While I am sure that - as a tall and muscular black man - they would be scared to see him in an alley (though he dresses well so would probably not be wearing a hoodie), I don't think anyone sincerely believed he was calling for violence or that they would be in danger while he was working.

He said a shocking thing to make people think. I got that from the beginning. Seeing how fiercely that is opposed - and not just opposed when seen, but people are actively seeking out dissent so they can attack livelihoods - that is why you need freedom of speech. And no, I do not think that means that his employer can't fire him; it means that his employer shouldn't fire him.

People say a lot of horrible things, and they may get ignored, or they may get vigorously defended. "That's satire", "you just don't have a sense of humor", "they've got a right to say it". Except that when you are arguing that black lives matter, some people will really go out of their way to stop you from saying it.

(Or they will try and hijack it to "All lives matter" which is true, it just misses the point that black lives are not treated like they matter and that needs to be addressed.)

There are people who don't want it addressed. They cannot be allowed to make that decision.