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While I'm open to discussion that things just might more complicated than the standard narrative (basically: "disproportionate shootings of unarmed blacks versu
by vanusa 5y ago
While I'm open to discussion that things just might more complicated than the standard narrative (basically: "disproportionate shootings of unarmed blacks versus those of whites is explained entirely by racial bias on the part of the police") -- this guy's line of thinking veers straight off into the deep end of spurious, unchecked reasoning. For example:
While it may be difficult to pin down an exact number, what’s clear is that thousands of black people have been murdered as a result of BLM’s falsehoods villainizing the police, and the resultant anti-police sentiment that makes police even more wary of confronting criminal suspects
The thing is, even you want to lend 100 percent credence to the so-called Minneapolis Effect (and not everyone does) -- this isn't what it says. Cassell's argument was based solely on the diversion of police resources, period. It did not attribute the 2021 homicide spike to "BLM falsehoods", "villainization of police", or "anti-police sentiment".
It's just spurious and off-kilter what he's saying (in addition to being inflammatory). On that point, and in a whole bunch of other places in his screed (which I'd rather not dissect right now).
Not that that explains his firing, though. The reason for that is pretty clear:
Receiving no support from HR, I raised the issue with my colleagues and senior leadership over email, for which I was fired.
That is, for expressly violating HR's request not to discuss this (alleged) harassment over company communication channels.
- civilized 5y ago1. Would you dismiss it as the "deep end of spurious, unchecked reasoning" if someone pointed out a likely connection between Trump's election fraud narratives and the events of January 6th, 2021? False and inflammatory narratives have consequences. It's not hard to figure out the connection in these cases. 2. Who cares if HR wanted him not to speak up? Their request was illegitimate. This is just bootlicking.
- vanusa 5y agoAs to 1. -- I see no connection to anything we're talking about here so I'll pass. As to 2. -- it wasn't about "speaking up" (privately or verbally) but rather using company networks to do so (that is, spamming company boards with this nonsense). Which is a rather different matter.
- civilized 5y ago1. Glib and disingenuous. 2. According to Kriegman's letter to TR management, the internal social media post was reviewed by HR and the head of DEI and approved by the internal moderators. He followed it up with an email complaining about his harassment. It was only after the email that he was fired. You either have no idea what happened in this story (and support the company anyway) or you're supporting a company for firing someone for emailing a harassment complaint.
- vanusa 5y ago1. Yep - "glib and disingenuous" was how I assessed your question. As to 2, from his own post: I was told I was not allowed to use any company communications channels (email, teams, the Hub, etc.) to discuss the attacks I had experienced. Receiving no support from HR, I [did precisely that] and was fired.
- civilized 5y agoIndeed, as I said, you're supporting a company for firing someone for complaining about harassment against a protected class. There is no evidence that TR did this, but if they did, it would be an egregious violation of civil rights law. It's astounding to me how you can support this and not be utterly ashamed of yourself.
- divbzero 5y agoYes, the author could have presented his core data analysis as is or framed it in a way that would encourage discussion instead of provoke reaction. Even the title at the top “BLM Spreads Falsehoods That Have Led to the Murders of Thousands of Black People in the Most Disadvantaged Communities” would rub many the wrong way and disincline them from processing the remainder of the article. It’s similar to presenting technical ideas at work: You can have the best idea ever from a technical standpoint, but if you present it poorly and turn off other people in the process your idea will probably be ignored.
- davidwritesbugs 5y agoYup. My initial reaction was "Has he posted a Masters thesis on the company blog?" If he had summarised it in 5 lines at the start & avoided the inflammatory headline he may have survived.