Anger doesn't describe the feeling that I felt when I read this story on msn.com today. Apparently, in Denver, Colorado two employees of Frontier airlines are accused of making a noose, showing it to a black co-worker and asking "are you ready?" The police ticketed one man with a "bias-motivated crime". According to Steve Snyder a spokesman for Frontier both employees have been "disciplined" and the airline is supposedly stepping up diversity training.
I understand that in this day and age that people are capable of anything and maybe some people would think that as long as the guy was ticketed and the company has disciplined them and they are implementing trainings on diversity that - that makes it alright. I don't think it does. I think that because we live in a day and age, in a country where every where you go you hear about being culturally sensitive and the numbers of minorities and diverse populations increase daily that these types of actions have to be taken very seriously, and are 100% intolerable. I believe that both of those men should be fired. I think that when people are lax and say oh well hey they didn't actually hang someone or hey they didn't take him out back and beat him up, so it's ok, that we are going backwards instead of forward. When people make racially or any kind of biased remarks I think that an example should be made especially by places of education and work that those types of ignorant thoughts and behaviors will not be tolerated.
Everyone has the freedom of speech and if you want to be bigoted and ignorant in your own house amongst your own family and friends then good for you, but you need to keep it there. Life is hard enough as it is no one needs the extra stress of some asshole harassing you, whether it's a one time thing or not. America has come a long way, but it hasn't come far enough that incidents like this can be ignored or "solved" with a slap on the hand. If we're not careful we could end up back on auction blocks before you can bat an eyelash.
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