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Thursday, October 01, 2009
An update on the story reported on loldarian.com yesterday regarding an anti-gay e-mail controversy on the campus of Morehouse College.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
Morehouse College has fired a woman and reprimanded another for discriminatory comments made via their work e-mail accounts.
The fired woman worked as an administrative assistant in the president’s office, according to reports. After receiving an e-mail forward that included wedding photos of a gay couple, she forwarded the e-mail to others and made comments that were considered discriminatory.
In a statement released Thursday, Dr. Robert M. Franklin, Morehouse’s president, announced that “the college has disciplined the persons involved in the incident, and one of the implicated employees is no longer with the college.”
The employees were not identified in Franklin's statement. Morehouse College has a no-tolerance position on discrimination, said Franklin.
“The views expressed in the e-mail entitled, ‘The WTD of the Week,' (September 28, 2009) were the personal views of one individual and do not reflect the values or policies of Morehouse College,” he said in the statement. “The College has taken great strides toward building a diverse and tolerant community.”
Although the AJC does not mention the terminated employee by name, Atlanta's gay publication Southern Voice reports Sandra Bradley, an administrative assistant to President Franklin as the culprit.
Former Morehouse College employee and co-worker of Bradley Khalid Kamau reflects on his experience with the terminated employee in a piece on loldarian.com here.
7 Comments:
Dr. Franklin's decision was good for the university and its many supporters. I'm satisfied!
October 01, 2009 9:57 PM
It's good to see Morehouse take such a strong stand so quickly against the perpetrators of those discriminatory emails. Kudos to Morehouse. Let it be an example to others who hold these antiquated beliefs about gays and lesbians. We all are created equal, and discrimination against anyone is discrimination against us ALL!
October 02, 2009 8:42 AM
Darian, I would like you to add the following ending to my statement:
"It saddened me to hear that, after working for years at Morehouse, this otherwise good womyn was fired for one ignorant act. This is an especially tough time, economically, for anyone to lose their job.
I think of all the opportunities I and the other Gay staff at Morehouse missed to have uncomfortable, but educational conversations with Ms. Bradley, and other employees like her, and I begin to feel personally responsible for what has happened.
Ms. Bradley's firing was a victory in the war against homophobia, for sure. But I find it tough to celebrate such victories, when I know the fight for them began in a field of cowardly, unnecessary silence that I helped create."
October 02, 2009 9:11 AM
It is sad that she lost her job after eight years; however, she knew better. When you put something in cyberspace then you have to be ready to face the music.
October 02, 2009 4:37 PM
Ok. I've kept quiet for a minute but feel that I should say something about this. I know I will probably be blasted for this. I've read the quote from the blog and unless there is more to it or something I missed, I honestly don't see what was so bad about her comment. Do I agree with her as a bi/gay male? Not really. But I see no difference in what she said and the types of things most of us have said ourselves about why it is so hard to find a decent black gay lover. Such as, it is hard to find a good black man because so many are on the DL, or someone ranting about why does it seem that so many black men don't want a effeminate man. And continue on with how this has lead to so many of us not being in long lasting relationships.
It's not as if she called us "fags' or said we are going to hell or anything like that. She was just expressing how hard it is to find a man and now with the rise of SGL men comfortable enough to be themselves, it seems like they can't get a break. And seeing a wedding of that magnitude, probably just gave her that sinking feeling. Especially if she hasn't had anything like that or doesn't even see anything like that in the future. Honestly, I can see one of my straight friends having this conversation with me and I would not have been offended. I would have tried to encourage her instead of trying to get her fired.
Again, that is unless I'm missing something.
October 02, 2009 5:22 PM
In the words of the proverbial Mya Wilks from "Girlfriends"...OH HELL YES! It's nice to see justice served. Small battles towards winning the war.
October 02, 2009 10:18 PM
@Ty
Hatred and scorn in the "black community" seems to be something solely reserved for LGBT individuals. A black convict gets more RESPECT than a black gay man no matter what his accomplishments. A black gay man gets more blame for the "declining black family" than a black felon.
I went to the funeral of a cousin last Friday. He was a drug addicted, 60 year old man who had been in and out of jail/prison for much of his adult life. He was a multiple felon. He had two stepsons both of whom followed in his footsteps. But the preacher and several of my cousin's "friends" who spoke at the funeral proclaimed him a "good" person who made a few mistakes but emphasized that only God can judge.
I couldn't help but sit there and imagine my black, gay self up there in that casket. What would these "good", mostly Christian, straight black people say about me? Would the preacher have said, only God (if there is one) can judge me? Or would I have been damned to hell for being an "abomination" with everybody in attendance saying Amen?
Sandra Bradley did not have to call anyone a "fag" to be offensive. (A black person can be the victim of racism without being called a "nigger".) Clearly this woman thought that these two gay men getting married was somehow keeping her and other black women from being/getting married. The marriage of these two gay men has absolutely NOTHING to do with any black woman's inability to find a husband. Unless she wants a gay husband. Ms. Bradley is a bigot who used the university's electronic equipment to spew her homophobic venom and she paid the price. I'm glad Morehouse fired her!
I think it's a form of self-hatred for you to allow your hypothetical straight black woman friend to blame her failure to find a husband on the existence of black gay men. How about a black gay man blaming his being single on too many men being heterosexual? It makes about as much sense.
October 05, 2009 6:51 AM
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