John Pisone was fired for making racist comments about an anti-fracking protester. His comments were later posted on YouTube.
If anyone still believes that racism is dead, they just need to go online to see how people really feel. Some employees have taken to social media to express racist comments about Black people. According to several media reports this has come back to bite them.
The Minneapolis City Pages reported that Mankato, Minn. resident Brad Schutz lost his job at Archer Daniel Midland after he posted racist comments on Black Lives Matter Minneapolis’ Facebook page. Schultz was irate at a recent BLM protest near the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.
Schultz wrote, “You dumb fucking n****rs. Get out of town with your bull**** protesting. The loser life (Jamar Clark) deserved to get shot for not cooperating with police. You make yourselves look worse. Get off your ass, get a job, do something … Just leave, white people don’t like you.”
He later apologized and deleted the post, but it was saved and reposted by Daily Haze, a counter culture community website. The threat was also posted on a Facebook page called Threatwatch, which holds online hate accountable. The page urged Facebook users to contact ADM Mankato, Schultz’ employer. Three days later ADM Mankato announced Schultz was no longer an employee of the firm. Schultz has since made his Facebook page private.
Raw Story reported that a Pennsylvania man was recently captured on video making racist comments about an anti-fracking protester who was demonstrating against Rex Energy’s drilling operation in the Mars Area School District. A man identified as John Pisone by The Butler News walked up to anti-fracking protesters and started berating them for staging a demonstration. However, he directed shockingly racist comments at a Black protester.
“Yeah, chimp,” Pisone said. “A f*cking n****r right here with a mop on his head. I don’t give a f*ck. He’s milking my f*cking tax dollars.”
The anti-fracking protesters responded by saying they had a right to hold a peaceful demonstration. Pisone’s comments were later posted to YouTube by photojournalist Tom Jefferson. On Tuesday, Pisone’s employer, MMC Land Management, posted a swift apology on Facebook and announced they had terminated his employment.
“We are sorry that this incident occurred. Whether at work or not, we do not condone hate speech – EVER. MMC has terminated this employee and will never do business with him again in the future,” said MMC Land Management.
Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds said people should be aware employers can hold them accountable for what they post on social media.
“[H]opefully, individuals will learn from Brad Schultz’s mistake and think twice before making racist statements on social media,” Levy-Pounds said in a Facebook post.
