Posted on 05/10/2017 12:56:17 PM PDT by Gamecock
Sgt. Cleon Brown was shocked to find out he could trace 18 percent of his DNA to regions of Africa. He said he was further shocked by his boss’s and coworkers’ response to those results, and now he’s suing over it.
Brown, who has worked at the Hastings Police Department in Michigan since 1998, took a genetic test with Ancestry.com last year that revealed the officer, who looks white, is 18 percent African. In the fall, Brown said he “proudly” told his fellow officers about that fact, according to a federal lawsuit, though city officials disagree with that characterization and say Brown joked about the results from the beginning.
“Sgt. Brown, in a very joking and jovial manner, informed several of his fellow officers that he had recently taken a DNA test through Ancestry.com and the results showed that he was 18 percent African American,” city officials said to Michigan Live.
Since then, Brown said his boss and fellow officers started taunting him about his race. The lawsuit alleges that Chief Jeff Pratt called Brown “Kunta,” an enslaved character in the novel “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by American author Alex Haley.
Brown also described incidents when officers would pump their fists and say “black lives matter,” when he walked past them, and the former mayor – after hearing about his DNA results – telling him and another officer a racist joke that included an offensive term for black people.
The statement by the city said Brown repeatedly brought up the fact he was African in “mutual bantering” with officers and he would engage in “typical racial stereotypes,” according to Michigan Live.
“After a month or so of Brown originally bringing it up, even that ended,” the city said. Brown’s attorney denies he ever joked about his heritage, according to CBS Detroit.
Another incident described in the lawsuit alleges an officer placed a black Santa figurine in Brown’s department Christmas stocking in December, with “18%” written on its beard. The city said the officer who did it apologized to Brown after he heard Brown was offended by it, and Brown “emphatically denied that he ever complained about it or that he was upset or offended by it and he even seemed confused that the issue was being raised.”
Brown filed a complaint in January with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to the lawsuit. He said he started experiencing “hostile, retaliatory behavior” from the chief and his fellow officers, including Pratt asking him to resign his sergeant position and return to the position of patrol officer.
While Brown said he is part of a protected class due to his African heritage, the city said that’s uncertain under civil rights laws. Racial discrimination laws are “not designed to protect those who can demonstrate some trace amount of a particular race or geographic origin,” the city said, according to Michigan Live.
Brown is seeking financial damages, saying in the lawsuit the stress has affected his health, and his attorney told CBS Detroit she hopes the accused officials will resign.
He is part African? If a certain area of his body is African, that might not be so bad!
On the Chris Corp(SP) show this morning, Chris told the officer to man up amd accept his ribbing with good humour because that is all it is. Many of his fellow officers were giving him a fist bump and a wink while saying Black Lives Matter.
Chris Corp said that if he got an ancestry test and that if it came back 18% African he would not be surprised and that the only person he wouldn’t have to explain that to would be his wife! Wink! Wink! I had to pull off the rode while driving because I was laughing so hard.
I wish we could scrap PC, lighten up a little and get back to some slightly insensitive but hilarious humour again! Are you listening Colbert!
That’s him? He is whiter than I am and my results were 29% British, 28% Irish and 25% Scandinavian. Rest Iberian.
I'd think the government would rather people not find out their ancestry. Just imagine the impact on our racial spoils system if millions of formerly "white" Americans discovered a drop of African DNA and started claiming preferential treatment?
Why, it would render all of it useless!
Your college books are wrong. I'm 100% American.
Make that 8%. Glasses dirty.
I am part Jewish
You can dance, yeah?
East Europe: 43%
Great Britian:27%
West Europe: 16%
Then trace regions. It's fun to do. I actually had 2% Southeast Asian in mine and 6% Italian. My siblings had neither. And we are 12/10 years apart.
Uh oh.
That was exactly what I was referring to...My dancing abilities are above reproach....
Everyone else’s minds were in the gutter :^)
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