I have read a number of essays by sorrowful liberals about the propriety of firing Nazis and White Supremacists for their beliefs.
After all, they say, even those people have the right to earn a living.
This is true.
This is true even though that side of the spectrum has no problem with blacklisting liberal writers, telling liberal actors and performers they should just shut up and sing or have their works burned en masse, and campaigning against teachers who don’t abide by Koch cant.
Those are the reasons why I have trouble sympathizing with Nazis and white supremacists who get fired because of their beliefs.
But you know what? I happen to agree that even the worst people on the planet have the right to earn a living.
This is where I think it’s right to draw the line.
If the business you run is an assembly line, where the workers are tasked to screw two widgets together and pack them in a cardboard box, then it doesn’t matter if the fourteenth guy in the row is a goddamned white supremacist. He’s a cog in the machine. His absolutely hateful beliefs do not reflect on your business. Similarly, if he pushes a broom or cleans up the dog shit or puts bricks on top of other bricks. His job performance is judged entirely by how he performs that particular task, and honestly, hateful as it is to admit, a guy who thinks Hitler had the right idea might be just as good a machinist as the guy next to him who would vomit profusely at the thought. As long as the piece of shit in question is not an active irritant or danger to his fellow employees, as long as being able to get along in a diverse group is not a job requirement, then you can shrug and say, “Even human garbage has to eat.”
But if the Nazi or white supremacist works with the public, all bets are off. You don’t want him serving diners at your restaurant, because that will affect his treatment of your clientele. You don’t want him selling appliances in your store, you don’t want him dealing with patients at your hospital, you don’t want him coaching kids at your school.
You run the widget factory and the guy with the Nazi flag on his bedroom wall manifests as just another surly bastard at work, he does not reflect on your company’s relationship with the public. You might as well employ him. He’s a piece of shit, but it really isn’t up to you to make sure all those guys tightening those widgets are not pieces of shit. Nor does the issuance of a paycheck to that piece of shit reflect on you or on your company, unless that piece of shit is in a position of authority and makes decisions about policy, or your company’s public positions. You run a real estate office and the same guy doesn’t want to cooperate with showing a respectable Jewish couple homes in a mostly Christian neighborhood, and especially if he utters anything that reflects upon his attitudes, then all of a sudden, you become the real estate office for Nazis, and if you don’t want that, firing his ass is the only goddamned reasonable response.
You might be perfectly fine with the guy washing dishes in the back being a hateful bastard. If he’s good at his job and doesn’t get on anybody else’s ass, then why not?
But don’t let him be the manager of your restaurant, or the maître ‘d.
Is this job discrimination? You could argue that it is, of a sort. It discriminates against workers who might be total bastards dealing with other human beings. It reflects the fact that you don’t want them being the face of your going concern. I have absolutely no problem with knowing that the Nazi gets the job of sitting in the back of the freezing warehouse making sure raccoons don’t get in overnight. I do have a problem with him having any contact with the public.
I think he should have his ass fired from that hot dog restaurant. He’s underqualified.
And I don’t think you should trust him to be your crossing guard.
Or your neighborhood cop.
Or your goddamned President.
Comment By: Michael Pullmann
August 15th, 2017 at 10:17 am
Honestly, if I were running the widget factory, I would worry that the avowed Nazi might present a danger to the other employees.
Comment By: Dennis Dickens
August 15th, 2017 at 10:17 am
(Waiting for the Freedom of Speech arguments. Knowing that it applies to the government and not private individuals.)
Comment By: Dave O'Neill
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
See also: freedom of speech not freedom from Consequences of your speech.
Comment By: Luis M Milan Leal
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
They have the right to earn a living. They don’t have the right to be employed by whomever they want, if the employer doesn’t want them.
Comment By: Jen Bredell
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
Waiting for all the supporters of “at will employment” to start arguing that bigotry should be a protected disability.
Comment By: David E Edge
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
Exactly. Republicans have fought long and hard to get those laws in place. First time ever that I have seem their utility.
Comment By: Glenn Hauman
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
All that said, there is a risk of backlash. “Liberal n*****lovers cost me my job!”
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
Because they were being such reasonable people up until now.
Comment By: Brian Siano
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
They say that anyway.
Comment By: Dennis Dickens
August 15th, 2017 at 2:18 pm
Right up there with “Illegal immigrants stole my job” when it was actually automation.
Comment By: Glenn Hauman
August 15th, 2017 at 3:17 pm
We’re not necessarily trying to win the mind of the guy saying it; we’re trying to prevent him infecting the mind of the next guy who loses his job.
Comment By: Glenn Hauman
August 15th, 2017 at 3:17 pm
You ever see someone get recruited into a cult? (Not THAT one, Dave, the heavy duty kind.) You’d be amazed how little it can take sometimes.
Comment By: Hector Johnson
August 16th, 2017 at 3:17 am
You’ve lost your job?
I believe ISIS is hiring at the moment.
Comment By: Molly Dugger Brennan
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
You do not have the luxury of allowing your business reputation to be destroyed because an employee is a hateful, loudmouthed bigot. You will lose business and they’re just aren’t enough big wallet bigots to rush in to save you if the general public declares you to be a putz. Protect your business, your income, your home, your family, and kick the hatemongers to the curb, now.
Comment By: Wyman Cooke
August 15th, 2017 at 4:18 pm
Versus the risk of losing your business when you lose a lawsuit from the terminated employee.
Comment By: Molly Dugger Brennan
August 15th, 2017 at 4:18 pm
First amendment rights protect you from backlash from the government, not private businesses. Even then, government employees are governed by the Hatch Act, which restricts their rights. Most businesses have a “conduct unbecoming” type clause in their employment documents. I would rather be known for firing a nazi and facing a frivolus lawsuit than not.
Comment By: Seth Breidbart
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
What is this “right to earn a living”? How is it enforced?
Comment By: Cameron McCoy
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
Is it like ‘right to work’?
Comment By: Doranna Durgin
August 15th, 2017 at 3:17 pm
Let them do as so many of us with disabilities do–struggle along in some self-employment effort that doesn’t pay the bills, doesn’t come with health insurance, and gets taxed out the wazoo.
Comment By: Faisal-Azam Qureshi
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
Not that I have any sympathies with Nazis and having lost work myself due to left and right wing bigots in the workplace, I do want to point out the following account by the son of a British fascist who also lost work due to his political activities.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/31/state-spying-extremists-father-john-beckett
Comment By: Jim Mann
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
You note that the place to draw the line is if the person works in a position that he or she represents the company and is public facing. But there is another case where I think you can, and should, fire such people: when they have to collaborate closely with a group at work. If it becomes public that one of the members of a team working closely together on a project was at a rally shouting that blacks were inferior, jews should be killed, etc. that creates a hostile work environment for the others on the team. How can they work closely with someone who has been publicly proclaiming that they should be dead?
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
Covered in the essay.
Comment By: Tamra Heathershaw-Hart
August 15th, 2017 at 10:40 am
And as one of my friends said this morning “I’m more worried about the Nazi working as a police officer, or an HR person, or in a bank deciding who gets a loan. Because they’re there already.”
Comment By: Linda Hepden
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
Several of those who lost their jobs did so because they listed their employers on their public Facebook pages. Thereby bringing the employer into disrepute. Moreal of the story: If you are going to be a moronic bigot, make sure you have your Facebook page locked down, or better yet, don’t list who you work for.
Comment By: David Peattie
August 15th, 2017 at 12:18 pm
If they weren’t morons they wouldn’t be bigots to begin with. Bigotry arises from two things: fear of That Which Is Other and ignorance of the fact that Other Is Not Necessarily a Bad Thing.
Comment By: Michaela Hohenadel
August 15th, 2017 at 10:53 am
Eventhough the mattress has been set on fire already,the whole house of the liberal, democratic USA is not burning yet. In order to prevent total destruction, much more education has to set in. Civil disobedience and constructive debates are vital! Please show the world that the land of the free is still an excellent crisis manager! Love & Peace with greetings from Berlin in Germany, the city and country that was divided by an iron wall for 28 years. 56 years ago, that wall was erected in August 1961. Please learn from history my friends. 🌝💚🕊🌈
http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/15/technology/culture/james-damore-interview/index.html
Comment By: Anne McDonald
August 15th, 2017 at 11:17 am
People have a right to believe whatever they want no matter how wrong. However the type of beliefs we are talking about tend to leak out into every day lives. These morons are the ones who told racist jokes about Presidnt Obama in mixed company expecting everyone to find them funny. They are the ones who also tell dirty jokes in mixed company expected everyone including the women present to be “good sports”. They post offensive cartoons on the wall or their locker door, they use their twitter feed, Facebook page, or instagram to bully insult and proselytize the filth they believe. So yeah, if they can keep their tongue between their teeth, their thumbs off the keyboard and their “jokes” to themselves, employ them.
Comment By: Karl J Martin
August 15th, 2017 at 11:18 am
Whether or not they have a right to earn a living, no one else has any obligation at all to provide them with the place to do it.
Comment By: Dave Meyer
August 15th, 2017 at 11:18 am
If you must ruin someone’s life because of their actions or political views, then the least you can do is damn well make sure you’ve got rock solid info. Unlike the social media sleuths in the Boston Marathon bombing case.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
August 15th, 2017 at 12:18 pm
Also true.
Comment By: Dave Meyer
August 15th, 2017 at 5:17 pm
I see innocents have already been targeted. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/charlottesville-doxxing.html?_r=0
Comment By: Dave Meyer
August 15th, 2017 at 5:17 pm
This says it all: “They were both bearded and had similar builds. By internet frenzy standards, that was proof enough.”
Comment By: Ann Clancy
August 15th, 2017 at 11:18 am
I don’t choose to be the one supporting the bigot. Let other bigots support bigots. In fact, don’t I have the right for my money, earn by my work, to support my beliefs?
Comment By: Russell Handelman
August 15th, 2017 at 11:18 am
In 1937, one of my relatives found out that one of his top employees had had a letter published in TIME magazine expressing approval for Hitler’s policies towards the Jews. This employee handled an account for one of my relative’s most important clients (who was not Jewish), who also saw the letter. The client called for a meeting with my relative and the employee. He then confronted the employee, who did not deny what he had written. When asked about how he could work for a Jew, the employee said he “didn’t mean him” when he wrote the letter. The client told my relative that he could not trust that employee, and demanded my relative fire him, or lose the account. My relative fired the employee.
Comment By: Joyce Reynolds-Ward
August 15th, 2017 at 12:18 pm
Oh hell, these are the same assholes who get teachers fired for simple pictures of themselves with a drink.
Comment By: Stephanie Maurer Whelan
August 15th, 2017 at 1:17 pm
I don’t have a problem with their businesses making decisions about the type of people they employ and how it reflects on the business. The premature smuggery and childish glee bothers me some because that’s behavior I see from the Nazi crowd. I don’t care for taunting and being happy about misfortune, I will grimly recognize the justice of it but I don’t care to tease when this is so much more serious. I want to recognize that these “victories” are petty victories at best that serve as immediate satisfaction, but do little to cut off the actual Hydra heads without creating more.
Comment By: Jane Campbell
August 15th, 2017 at 1:18 pm
Agree. The taunting and glee troubles me. But I am ok with firing their asses.
Comment By: Jane Campbell
August 15th, 2017 at 1:18 pm
My rule always was: never in work environments. If you can leave it in your head anytime you are working, then i will allow you to work for me. But the instant you act or talk in a way that demonstrates your beliefs, you are gone. Don’t mention that you are LDS, don’t talk about the anti abortion rally, don’t wear nazi symbols and never discriminate.
Comment By: Jane Campbell
August 15th, 2017 at 1:18 pm
And if your face becomes a recognizable symbol of hate, yes I would fire your ass. I don’t want your coworkers afraid to be around you
Comment By: Randy Miller
August 15th, 2017 at 3:18 pm
If you, the Nazi, become linked with my company, you represent me and you must leave. Now. If you own a company and are a Nazi, we will no longer do business with you.
The stench is too strong.
Comment By: Wyman Cooke
August 15th, 2017 at 4:18 pm
Worrisome is the people who are falsely being accused of being alt-right or Nazis. Being attacked by a mob is ahead of losing a job.
Comment By: James Cole
August 15th, 2017 at 8:17 pm
Superb essay Adam-Troy. Thank you.
Comment By: Richard S. Drake
August 15th, 2017 at 11:19 pm
This is very good. Thanks for writing it.
Comment By: Jane Campbell
August 16th, 2017 at 12:18 am
Yes, i also thought it very well stated