Racist Tweets Can Get You Fired
by Latoya Peterson
– davidle630: “In americas ghetto anacostia… If i get scared i will just yell chinese carry out! They will not shoot me.”
From the “none too swift” files, David Le was fired after his twitter messages about his slacking off at work and hating Anacostia surfaced.
The D.C. Department of Employment Services fired a contractor who was working with youths in the city’s summer jobs program after officials became aware of messages on his Twitter site that Anacostia is “ghetto” and that he was loafing at work.[...]
Reached through Facebook, Le declined to comment. In a Twitter message, he said he is Asian. The profile photo shows him shirtless and in sunglasses. Hobson said he began working on June 10 and was paid $13 per hour to oversee participants in the Summer Youth Employment Program.
In addition to the racist comments, he was happy to talk about how much he wasn’t working:
– davidle630: “thank goodness my boss is making things easy, he told me to pretend to do work so he can mark me down for hours…
– davidle630: “They decided to just pay us for 40 hours a week bc we are too lazy to sign in and out…”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
atlasien wrote:
At least he’s helping smash the stereotype that all Asians are hard-working.
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 9:13 am ¶
Evan wrote:
But he didn’t smash the stereotype that all DC government workers are lazy bureaucrats.
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 10:27 am ¶
Marcy Webb wrote:
My take on this: Let it all hang out. Keep it poppin’. Folks expressing their true thoughts, for which they should get fired. Mad props to the companies and organizations that are stepping up and keeping it real.
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 10:27 am ¶
SoKoKo wrote:
Speaking of racism on twitter, peep this:
http://expatjane.blogspot.com/2009/06/omg-black-people.html
The omg black people blog (omgblackpeople.tumblr.com) seems to have been deleted (for now?) which is a shame because a catalogue of racists spouting their asshattery might be useful (as painful and frustrating as some of those comments were to read).
This stuff isn’t new or surprising, online or offline racism exists, just expressed in different ways. I’m glad this David Le idiot was fired but I fear in the majority of cases involving racism on social netowrking sites nothing much is done.
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 10:45 am ¶
Talulah wrote:
That…that is pure genius.
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 10:46 am ¶
Medusa wrote:
@ atlasien-lol
Seriously though, man gets fired for being a lazy racist…is that news?
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 10:53 am ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist! wrote:
LOL @ Atlasien’s comment. Tsk, tsk.
Seriously, just keep your Twitter protected and private, folks. Mine is private and I can write as many nasty, sexually crude comments as I want, and my parents will NEVER find out (since they have no idea what Twitter is and I don’t intend to tell them about it).
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 11:00 am ¶
ghettoManga wrote:
what a dumb ass… i bet his co-workers are mad, cause now they gotta give up the free hours too.
way to f*ck it up for everybody, Dave! i hear the Golden Wock is hiring!
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 11:36 am ¶
Joseph wrote:
@Atlasien
BWAH!
Wait… you can get fired from the government?
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 11:43 am ¶
Tracey wrote:
How is it that I am unemployed? At least now racist co-workers are outing themselves and getting fired. Maybe twitter and facebook will be the downfall of racists/elitists who supervise those they hold racist/elitist/esxist views about. Next up, teacher gets fired for twitering about incorrigible laziness of blacks, inability of girls to do math, and backwardness of poor students, as well as facebook pictures that shows teacher drinking and smoking weed with students.
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 12:25 pm ¶
F. wrote:
Yeah what David Le did was wrong and offensive, but do WE really have to make “Golden Wok”/Chinese restaurant crack, ghettoManga (#8)?
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 12:48 pm ¶
Kaonashi wrote:
LMAO, GOOD!
Dumb people doing dumb things.
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 2:08 pm ¶
maggie wrote:
Really, ghettoManga? Really?
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 2:09 pm ¶
Joy wrote:
Really? I’m sure the real reason this dude was fired was because his “boss is making things easy, he told me to pretend to do work so he can mark me down for hours…” and he was dumb enough to broadcast it, and not because of any racist remarks he may have made. Sad, but had that delivery comment been the only one made, I don’t think we’d be hearing about it.
(That said let me get back to work.)
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 2:55 pm ¶
Marcy Webb wrote:
The oppressed oppress the oppressed.
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 3:55 pm ¶
dee dee wrote:
That’s why I save my unadulterated and raw feelings for my journal. I figure anyone nosy enough to read it DESERVES to get the lash.
(not that i’m racially bashing anyone. but when i’m heated, i let my truth fly!)
Posted 29 Jun 2009 at 6:49 pm ¶
sandeep wrote:
i ask myself, “is this really racist?” and i find myself saying no.
i would call it brutally honest, in the description i read of his workplace. his remarks on shootings in anacostia… i don’t find them racist. i think something is at work, yes, but i don’t see mention of race. and i think a person calling an asian person feeling comfortable with an asian person racist, is i’d say misguided.
if i see that someone feels safe in a particular place / with a particular people, who am i to barge in and claim racism. i feel its harmless.
i’m left with the line about shootings. i assume our writer feels this may be a racial potshot? i dont.
i then feel his firing was more likely due to his comments about his job as i read above. again though i don’t think this firing was just. i feel free speach should not beget punishment, i feel if someone does the job @ work then why should i care what they blather on about on their personal time on their personal website. i feel this stinks of conservatism.
Posted 30 Jun 2009 at 12:03 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
*sigh*
One, folks, please remember your Editrix is from DC. Generally speaking, the folks who bear the brunt of violence in Anacostia are those who live there, not people passing through on their summer gigs.
Really.
@sandeep -
You saw nothing wrong with this:
– davidle630: “In americas ghetto anacostia… If i get scared i will just yell chinese carry out! They will not shoot me.”
No black stereotypes, asian american stereotypes? Nothing?
Hmph.
(And he must not be reading Angry Asian Man, because a lot of carryout folks die on the job.)
Posted 30 Jun 2009 at 8:47 am ¶
RCHOUDH wrote:
Good thing this guy got fired; I wouldn’t want my taxpayer dollars going towards him sitting on his butt all day making racist jokes.
Posted 30 Jun 2009 at 2:08 pm ¶
E A wrote:
Self-hate is STILL a form of racism, even if the insult is dispelling another stereotype.
Posted 30 Jun 2009 at 3:09 pm ¶
inkst wrote:
The icing on the cake for me with this one is the job the guy had. I work at a youth-serving agency, and we are currently placing young people in the summer employment program (not in DC though), which came about through stimulus money. It’s a great program in theory, but everything was really rushed, and apparently nimrod’s like this dude got hired to work it. I had just gotten back from training his equivalent when I first read about this. The world is just amazing sometimes.
Posted 02 Jul 2009 at 1:13 pm ¶