Crystal Dixon just received verbal notification from UT that she has been fired for speaking her opinion in a copy of the Toledo Free Press...
University president Lloyd Jacobs expressed his views in an article in the Toledo Free Press. His column followed one written by the University's associate vice president of human resources, Crystal Dixon. Dixon ignited a debate about whether discrimination against gays is different from other forms of discrimination, including race.
In her April 18th column Dixon wrote: "as a black woman... I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual life style are 'civil rights victims'. Here's why i cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman."
I have a hard time believing she'd lose a wrongful termination lawsuit.
5 comments:
I don't know. Many of the African American teachers and coaches in our area are feeling much the same way anglo teachers felt twenty years ago. Many of them feel that Hispanic teachers are given advantages and are hired ahead of more experienced teachers of all colors. In the light of that, being African American is no longer the big stick in a court case. I would like to think that such things as expressing ones opinion would be protected by Constitutional law, but honestly do you know of ANY court that supports pure Constitutional law? It's a battle of political extremes and it just depends whose court she lands in. What a shame. And if the UT in question is the University of Texas, I am not in the least surprised. They don't call it "Berkley on the Brazos" for nothing.
My bad. I should have read the whole story. I still stick by the idea that being African American is no longer the political emphasis that it used to be.
Well there's an interesting question there. How do we view those who during the civil rights movement denounced the rights of racial minorities. We sure don't talk about them positively, but I would like to know if at that time a professor could've been fired for such remarks. At the time people believed certain groups of people didn't deserve or weren't guaranteed civil rights so it would be interesting to see what, if any, the consequences were for expressing those opinions while holding a professorship. I personally think as long as she doesn't express her anti-homosexual views in anyway during her job your right in saying it was a wrongful termination, but it would be interesting to see prior cases from a different time.
So she can have a view but not express it? Her view, while many don't agree with it, certainly isn't out of the mainstream.
Well not too long ago in certain parts of the South the view that minorities weren't equal to Caucasians was mainstream. But my point is as long as the views weren't being taught, promoted, or inappropriately shared with a class she has no right to be fired, just like my view with communists. One shouldn't be fired for having an opinion but expressing an inappropriate one should be at least possible grounds for dismissal, at least depending on the case. I would say singling out a group of people and saying their pursuit of civil rights is offensive to her is crossing the line, and should at least be possible grounds for dismissal depending on all the circumstances of the case.
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