Suspension over racist e-mail

Here's the precedent case in SA Law: http://www.worklaw.co.za/Tour/TourFiles/Casesub/C14.ASP

Cronje v Toyota Manufacturing (2001) 21 ILJ 735 (CCMA); (2002) 23 ILJ 1563 (LC)

Principle:

Dismissal may be substantively fair where an employee distributes racist e-mail in contravention of the employer’s e-mail usage code.

Facts:

The employee was dismissed for distributing by email a racist cartoon depicting a gorilla with President Mugabe’s head transposed on it. The cartoon was widely circulated and upset the company’s black staff, of whom there were 3 500. Race and race sensitivity were important in the company and its email policy prohibited the distribution of racist messages. The Labour Court agreed with the CCMA commissioner that the cartoon was racist and inflammatory in the context in which it was distributed. The court was satisfied that dismissal was the appropriate sanction.

Extract from the award:

The fact of the offensive racist stereotype associating black people with apes exists is not disputed. This is a matter of deep moral, social and cultural sensitivity to black people and this sort of offensive racial stereotyping is not by any means limited to black people.
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When I was a kid, about 7, my best friend was a black kid named Dean. He was a year or two older then me but we used to play all kinds of games that would be considered racist if it was taken out of context. Hell, we didn't even know what racism is. We were quite literally inseparable. We ate together (mostly Xhosa food like mfino as his mom was Xhosa) and got up to mischief like pinching fruit. Anyway, eventually we moved away and I never saw him again.

People should lighten up, not everything is racism. People seem to actively look for chances to call racism and criticize and scream blue murder. What if the guy had posted a photo of a kid riding a donkey and commented "quad bikes in the good old days" which is what donkeys where, great fun too. Anyway the guy is an idiot for sending that by email.
 
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Ronjay said:
When I was a kid, about 7, my best friend was a black kid named Dean. He was a year or two older then me but we used to play all kinds of games that would be considered racist if it was taken out of context. Hell, we didn't even know what racism is. We were quite literally inseparable. We ate together (mostly Xhosa food like mfino as his mom was Xhosa) and got up to mischief like pinching fruit. Anyway, eventually we moved away and I never saw him again.

People should lighten up, not everything is racism. People seem to actively look for chances to call racism and criticize and scream blue murder. What if the guy had posted a photo of a kid riding a donkey and commented "quad bikes in the good old days" which is what donkeys where, great fun too.
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I fully agree. However the script/note attached to the picture makes it racist.
I see nothing wrong with the picture at all, I highly doubt anyone else would have if it wasn't for the note attached.
 
MickeyD said:
That is exactly the issue.
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Another example is the recent post on ZASucks which had the author laughing at the fact a dead black baby was being thrown. That is not only racist but pretty disturbing and twisted too.

http://www.zasucks.net/2011/02/dead-black-babies-lol.html

The original picture itself won an award at the 54th World Press Photo Contest and can be seen on Boston's Big Picture's segment on the finalist. In this context, it's not racist, it's just portraying how awful the Haiti situation is/was and I think that it does a good job doing so.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/world_press_photo_winners.html (picture #17)
 
Fudzy said:
Another example is the recent post on ZASucks which had the author laughing at the fact a dead black baby was being thrown. That is not only racist but pretty disturbing and twisted too.

http://www.zasucks.net/2011/02/dead-black-babies-lol.html

The original picture itself won an award at the 54th World Press Photo Contest and can be seen on Boston's Big Picture's segment on the finalist. In this context, it's not racist, it's just portraying how awful the Haiti situation is/was and I think that it does a good job doing so.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/world_press_photo_winners.html (picture #17)
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*I haven't checked the link yest I will do it now*

[-]But the whole point of ZAsucks is to show how sick and twisted South Africa has become. I doubt it has anything to do with the colour of the baby being thrown.[/-]

/off to go check the link

edit:
Fark me, scratch that... That site is pretty stupid and sickening tbh...
 
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Fudzy said:
Another example is the recent post on ZASucks which had the author laughing at the fact a dead black baby was being thrown. That is not only racist but pretty disturbing and twisted too.

http://www.zasucks.net/2011/02/dead-black-babies-lol.html

The original picture itself won an award at the 54th World Press Photo Contest and can be seen on Boston's Big Picture's segment on the finalist. In this context, it's not racist, it's just portraying how awful the Haiti situation is/was and I think that it does a good job doing so.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/world_press_photo_winners.html (picture #17)
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Very disturbed individuals, those...
 
Two guys at work got warnings because they asked a coloured girl from Cape Town, why she couldn't speak Afrikaans ...
She complained to our HR that they are racist.
 
Nod said:
Two guys at work got warnings because they asked a coloured girl from Cape Town, why she couldn't speak Afrikaans ...
She complained to our HR that they are racist.
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WTF?!?!?!

I would never sign such a warning. Are you serious?
 
Nod said:
Two guys at work got warnings because they asked a coloured girl from Cape Town, why she couldn't speak Afrikaans ...
She complained to our HR that they are racist.
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That's just stupid. Over reaction as always. People are so over sensitive.
 
Pitbull said:
How is asking someone coming from an Afrikaans area why she can't speak the language racist?
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You tell me. I was completely taken aback when I heard it.

*As a side note, anyone growing up in Cape Town can speak Afrikaans*
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Well, apparently not. Or, she is simply feels Afrikaans is below her. Who knows?
 
Nod said:
You tell me. I was completely taken aback when I heard it.


Well, apparently not. Or, she is simply feels Afrikaans is below her. Who knows?
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I have seen this allot. People speaking english with an afrikaans accent then say they can't speak afrikaans :confused: :D
 
Pitbull said:
How is asking someone coming from an Afrikaans area why she can't speak the language racist?

*As a side note, anyone growing up in Cape Town can speak Afrikaans*
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It's kind of like asking me why I can't speak Gaelic because my Grandfather is Scottish, but yeah, it's definitely not racist.
 
Nod said:
You tell me. I was completely taken aback when I heard it.


Well, apparently not. Or, she is simply feels Afrikaans is below her. Who knows?
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There has to be more to it than you were told. No disciplinary can find against someone for simply asking why they don't speak a language.
 
Ronjay said:
It's kind of like asking me why I can't speak Gaelic because my Grandfather is Scottish, but yeah, it's definitely not racist.
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No, it's more like asking you why you can't speak Gaelic if you grew up in Scotland.

Anyway, it's very far from racist we can agree on that though :p
 
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