The freedom of speech comes at a very high price for those few who dare to engage in their constitutional right to use it. For Justin Carter it cost him 5 months of his life- and could still cost him at least 10 more years. Now, a teenage coffee shop employee has lost her job after sharing a personal opinion on her own Twitter account.
Social media was buzzing this past week with talk of the verdict in the Zimmerman case. Everyone and their brother took to the airwaves and the internet to express their opinions, outrage, support, and every other legal/social comment and interpretation imaginable. So did a 17-year-old girl from Livonia, Michigan.
The only difference between her and the hateful garbage that routinely spews out of the likes of Rush Limbaugh’s mouth is that a single Tweet cost her a job, and it shouldn’t have.
At 11:16 p.m. the night that the “not guilty” verdict was announced, she tweeted: “I want to thank God for that bullet that killed Trayvon Martin.”
The Michigan-based company took immediate action and terminated her before she even began her very first shift in the store because of the Twitter post that they were made aware of after she was hired- her tweet went public after a story on YourBlackWorld.net reported on Monday that the statement came from a Biggby Coffee employee, initiating the social media outrage against the coffee chain.
With a mob mentality and pitchforks in hand, it didn’t take long for individuals- already emotional over the verdict- to send angry messages to the company on Twitter and fill their Facebook page with posts blasting the local store for hiring such a “racist” employee and pledging not to frequent the chain.
The owner of the franchise told the Huffington Post that he found the tweet “horrific.”
“I did hire her, but I had no knowledge of [her tweet] whatsoever,” said the store manager.
The company released a statement earlier in the week saying the employee had been suspended pending review. By Thursday, she had been terminated from the company and they released the following statement on July 15:
“BIGGBY COFFEE does not in any way condone the statements made by the employee at one of its franchise locations. The thoughts and opinions of BIGGBY COFFEE franchise employees do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of BIGGBY COFFEE.”
Other than that, company officials have been silent concerning the incident.
Okay, by their very own public statement they admit that they had no cause to fire her. How can I say this? It’s simple.
“The thoughts and opinions of BIGGBY COFFEE franchise employees do not reflect the thoughts and opinions of BIGGBY COFFEE.”
The issue at the heart of this is that this girl had every right to say what she wanted and how she wanted. Had she used a company computer, done so on company time, or made the comment as a representative of Biggby, then I could see a probable cause for her release; but this was her personal account, posted on her personal time, and in no way has anything to do with her ability to perform her tasks at the coffee shop or affects the reputation of Biggby Coffee as a business entity.
The fact that this girl was an employee at a local Biggby is completely irrelevant and it shows something about the personal character of the minds behind YourBlackWorld.net as much as it does about the personal character of the girl. My guess is that they were searching the internet for buzzwords related to the verdict, found her comment, then upon back reading her feed saw that she was recently hired at the store and decided to use it against her to prove some kind of pithy political point- to make an example out of her.
Nonetheless, the teen’s firing apparently pacified many of Biggby’s critics. “I, for one, was happy that she didn’t get a chance to start. IMO [sic], it shows character in Biggby as a business,” wrote one Twitter user.
The company’s Facebook page is also filled with messages of gratitude for the employee’s firing.
“So glad you fired that girl. Racism should not be tolerated in any form. I could just imagine how she would treat your customers of color. Kudos to Biggby Coffee,” wrote one user.
They might not like what she had to say; you might not like what she had to say; but damn it, she has as much right to say it as you do to speak up in defiance over it. She did not deserve to lose her job over something that had absolutely nothing to do with her duties.
Was her tweet ignorant? Was it hateful and senseless? Was it racist? The answer to all three is “maybe, maybe not.” That’s how opinions and the free expression thereof works. It’s not a matter of right versus wrong, nor should it be.
Racism is bad, yes, but so is blatant censorship.
She had every right to say it and you have a right to ignore it. It in no way gets in the way of your morning Nutty Buddy.
The First Amendment is in serious jeopardy if that’s the case. Citizens have the right to the free expression of ideas, but I guess that’s only on paper. The reality is that the public expression of an opinion is only supported by law if what you have to say concedes to the status quo. The hounds of hell be released on anyone who dares say something unpopular. She may well have a case for unlawful termination and a violation of her constitutional rights- and I hope that she wins. I don’t support what she said, but I support her right to say it.
She has since deleted her account, according to The Examiner.
Oh, for those not familiar with Biggby, the company knows a thing or two about controversy. They had to change their name and completely re-brand to avoid “potentially offending” customers because, prior to 2007, the company was known as Beaner’s Coffee- an obvious and innocent enough name that paid homage to the magical and delicious coffee bean we all love. However, they received criticism because some ignorant people, sitting atop their high horses, took issue and assumed that it was a derogatory name synonymous with a racial term for Mexicans.
Some people obviously have way too much free time. Just sip your latte and relax.
*For editorial reasons, none of the names of those associated with this incident were used, particularly that of a minor.*
For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/
Sources: Huffington Post, Inquisitor, Examiner, MLive.com
© 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions
Wolf, I couldn’t agree more with your sentiment. To express my thoughts on my time using my resources in no way reflects my abilities toward job performance. What if she had said she hated the way her employers treat her yet did the job as required every day. Would she be fired for that? Could she file a wrongful termination suit? Probably not, RTW laws have protected the company and forgotten the individual. Freedom of speech, only if you dare.
We’ve reached an impasse in law where policies in place are contradicting each other. One law protects, while another strips the same right away.