Just in case it’s not clear by now, other people can read and respond to things you write online. Posting the wrong thing can land you in jail or get you fired.
The latter is what happened to Jessica Elizabeth, who was shown the door at her Chicago bartending job following a racist diatribe on Facebook.
Elizabeth wrote about African Americans on her Facebook profile, calling them “apes” and using the N-word several times.
“Wow so insane how one race of people can be so fucking incompetent and disgusting,” she wrote.
Some of her friends joined in with the attacks.
“Wanna beat them up? Bc id like to with some of them,” wrote user Andy J Cuthbertson.
Another of Elizabeth’s friends, pointed out that the rant was in bad taste. “Hey hitler, this is in violation of your social media contract. Please remove it ASAP,” she wrote.
Though Elizabeth made her account private and deleted the rant, Chicago nightlife blogger 312 Dining Diva posted screenshots of her comments.
The day after Elizabeth’s rant came to light, her (now former) employer at Proof, Mike Bloem, responded with a statement.
“Proof would like to confirm its belief in equality, fairness and tolerance to all our friends and partners,” he said, according to New York Daily News. Sadly, on occasion, we are all exposed to ignorance and racism. We believe that by continuing to be true to our ideals and leading through our actions that each of us can be an agent for positive change.”
Yet it seems the discrimination problem at the club goes further than Elizabeth. As Huffington Post points out, the club has had a number of negative reviews on its Yelp page, including one written by a customer in 2010 that accuses Proof of racial discrimination against her.
Commenters on the 312 Dining Diva blog accused the club of discrimination as well.
Photo by BruceTurner
