my respect for ACLU

[Anonymous]

What hapened to the ACLU? It used to protect our rights. This article makes them seem crazy: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/us/politics/aclu-employee-fired-race-bias.html

Who would want to live in a world where this is considered racism?

[Anonymous]

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/aclu-said-worker-used-racist-121118600.html

Here's a no paywall one. I think it sounds like the language she used was loaded, especially "beatings". She took it to Twitter and there too her language was hyperbolic and also unclear: what did they do that made her "afraid" and how were they "abusive"? To me you cannot make vague strong statements like these to anyone other than private venting to a spouse or friends without backing it up.

[Anonymous]

Nice to see where they really stand on free speech

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://sg.news.yahoo.com/aclu-said-worker-used-racist-121118600.html

Here's a no paywall one. I think it sounds like the language she used was loaded, especially "beatings". She took it to Twitter and there too her language was hyperbolic and also unclear: what did they do that made her "afraid" and how were they "abusive"? To me you cannot make vague strong statements like these to anyone other than private venting to a spouse or friends without backing it up.

The "beatings" language is from the phrase "the beatings will continue until morality improves" which is not loaded.

It sounds like she was obnoxious and abrasive - and the workplace was hugely toxic, made so by crazy terrible bosses.

[Anonymous]

Ironic

[Anonymous]

If you put a large number of snowflakes in an office, they're going to trigger each other. And some of them will get fired.

[Anonymous]

This part is crazy......

"A lawyer representing the ACLU, Ken Margolis, said during a legal proceeding last year that it was irrelevant whether Oh bore no racist ill will. All that mattered, he said, was that her Black colleagues were offended and injured."

So, if an employee is "offended," that is all that matters???
This is a ridiculous bar.

And, this part is so, so true.......

"But to critics of the ACLU, Oh’s case is a sign of how far the group has strayed from its core mission — defending free speech — and has instead aligned itself with a progressive politics that is intensely focused on identity.

“Much of our work today,” as it explains on its website, “is focused on equality for people of color, women, gay and transgender people, prisoners, immigrants, and people with disabilities.”

And since the beginning of the Trump administration, the organization has taken up partisan causes it might have avoided in the past, like running an advertisement to support Stacey Abrams’ 2018 campaign for governor of Georgia.

“They radically expanded and raised so much more money — hundreds of millions of dollars — from leftist donors who were desperate to push back on the scary excesses of the Trump administration,” said Lara Bazelon a law professor at the University of San Francisco who has been critical of the ACLU. “And they hired people with a lot of extremely strong views about race and workplace rules. And in the process, they themselves veered into a place of excess.”

[Anonymous]

Do you guys work with robots or with humans? Do none of your colleagues ever use phrases that are not extremely bland? I just cannot believe these are considered unreasonable things to say, let alone racist. I guess if I overdosed on valium, maybe I could only say "I'm afraid I cannot do that, dave". Oops. I used "afraid". my bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys work with robots or with humans? Do none of your colleagues ever use phrases that are not extremely bland? I just cannot believe these are considered unreasonable things to say, let alone racist. I guess if I overdosed on valium, maybe I could only say "I'm afraid I cannot do that, dave". Oops. I used "afraid". my bad.

Yep.
Sounds to me that they wanted to get rid of her so they fabricated a pretty weak case of "racism" to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys work with robots or with humans? Do none of your colleagues ever use phrases that are not extremely bland? I just cannot believe these are considered unreasonable things to say, let alone racist. I guess if I overdosed on valium, maybe I could only say "I'm afraid I cannot do that, dave". Oops. I used "afraid". my bad.

Yep.
Sounds to me that they wanted to get rid of her so they fabricated a pretty weak case of "racism" to do so.

They are a progressive organization now so they legitimately believe that anything making black people feel offended is racist. What's amusing in this situation is that progressives constantly claim only those with power can be racist yet this situation is people with the power to fire a woman claiming she is the racist.

[Anonymous]

I put the ACLU and the SPLC in the same bucket.

They are both organizations that have lost their way and are no longer credible.

[Anonymous]

Leftist organizations always eat themselves.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, it's both ... and... I think her language was definitely coded AND they had a toxic work environment that they did not manage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This part is crazy......

"A lawyer representing the ACLU, Ken Margolis, said during a legal proceeding last year that it was irrelevant whether Oh bore no racist ill will. All that mattered, he said, was that her Black colleagues were offended and injured."

So, if an employee is "offended," that is all that matters???
This is a ridiculous bar.

And, this part is so, so true.......

"But to critics of the ACLU, Oh’s case is a sign of how far the group has strayed from its core mission — defending free speech — and has instead aligned itself with a progressive politics that is intensely focused on identity.

“Much of our work today,” as it explains on its website, “is focused on equality for people of color, women, gay and transgender people, prisoners, immigrants, and people with disabilities.”

And since the beginning of the Trump administration, the organization has taken up partisan causes it might have avoided in the past, like running an advertisement to support Stacey Abrams’ 2018 campaign for governor of Georgia.

“They radically expanded and raised so much more money — hundreds of millions of dollars — from leftist donors who were desperate to push back on the scary excesses of the Trump administration,” said Lara Bazelon a law professor at the University of San Francisco who has been critical of the ACLU. “And they hired people with a lot of extremely strong views about race and workplace rules. And in the process, they themselves veered into a place of excess.”

I guess they no longer care about free speech

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, it's both ... and... I think her language was definitely coded AND they had a toxic work environment that they did not manage.

Her language does not read as "coded" to me at all. But I'm not Black so I really can't say.