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Detroit Firefighter Fired for Bringing ‘Racially Insensitive’ Watermelon to Work
Breitbart ^ | 8 Oct 2017 | Katherine Rodriguez

Posted on 10/08/2017 7:14:13 PM PDT by Lera

A Detroit firefighter was fired before he officially began his first day on the job for bringing a watermelon to work.

Robert Pattison, 41, introduced himself to his fellow firefighters at Engine 55 at the corner of Joy and Southfield in Detroit by bringing a welcome gift, WJBK reported.

Second Battalion Chief Shawn McCarty calls this welcome gift “a tradition” for Engine 55’s firefighters.

“It’s not mandatory, it’s voluntary,” he said. “You come in bearing gifts. The usual gift is doughnuts, but you are allowed to bring whatever you want to bring in.”

Pattison, who was a probationary firefighter, decided to stand out from the crowd and bring a watermelon with a pink bow on top.

Some black firefighters were reportedly offended by Pattison’s gesture since 90 percent of the firefighters at Engine 55 are black.

“When you get your first detail at a firehouse you pretty much know what you are getting yourself into,” said Patrick Trout. “So you would have to say it was probably a bad call.”

McCarty said that some people at the firehouse claim it is “racially insensitive” to bring a watermelon to a firehouse.

Pattison argued that he did not bring in the watermelon as a joke and had no intention of offending his colleagues.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: bluezones; detroit; firefighter; ohlawds; raciallyinsensitive; snowflakes; urban; watermelon; workplace
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To: Candor7

Yellow watermelon


41 posted on 10/08/2017 8:57:07 PM PDT by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: TigersEye

Fired guy should sue. Not for the Jo back but for damages and disparagement.


42 posted on 10/08/2017 9:06:53 PM PDT by inchworm
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To: Lera

White people eat the same food black people eat. Nothing racist about it.

Now if he put the watermelon in blackface,....


43 posted on 10/08/2017 9:41:15 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Lera

If this fire department is really that stupid, he’s better off not working for them anyway. Let them stew in their smothering ignorance!


44 posted on 10/08/2017 11:09:08 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: ptsal

Yellow watermelon>>>>>>>>>>>

Or even “ White Watermelon” , only for white folks!

Guaranteed not to offend the sensitivity of racists concerned about cultural appropriation.

http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/White_Wonder_Watermelon_12740.php


45 posted on 10/09/2017 2:03:02 AM PDT by Candor7 ( (Obama Fascism http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.htm)
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To: Lera

Go F your ‘racial insensitivity’!


46 posted on 10/09/2017 2:11:37 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: Lera

They are. And full of crapola too. Watermelon is just as much a white people food. Give folks the benefit of the doubt. Nobody would go into a new job first day and set out to offend his co-workers. Even so, let’s say 90% of them were Hungarian, had he brought in goulash would they appreciate it or be offended? What if they were majority Mexican, would burritos be out of line or appreciated? Me thinks some people are just too thin skinned.


47 posted on 10/09/2017 2:18:26 AM PDT by kelly4c
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To: Lera
Watermelons are situationally racist. Like rope, shoelaces, cotton bolls, Brazil nuts, fried chicken. They are Kryptonite to some black people but only when white people bring them into a situation. If black people bring them, the Kryptonite effect is neutralized.

48 posted on 10/09/2017 2:46:38 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Kill: NFL, NBA, BLM, CAIR, Hollywood, Antifa, SPLC, CNN, ESPN, NPR, TWITTER, FACEBOOK)
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To: Right Wing Assault
Oops! forgot the bananas.

49 posted on 10/09/2017 2:48:01 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Kill: NFL, NBA, BLM, CAIR, Hollywood, Antifa, SPLC, CNN, ESPN, NPR, TWITTER, FACEBOOK)
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To: Lera

Hope no White person ever packs fried chicken in his lunch box and shows up there....Popeye’s/Church’s/KFC and others are obviously racist establishments meant only for White....or is that Blacks... it all gets so dang confusing these days...


50 posted on 10/09/2017 3:36:06 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Lera

Monty Python

Defending Yourself Against Fresh Frit sketch

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U90dnUbZMmM


51 posted on 10/09/2017 3:42:54 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: conservative98

Paging Gallagher.


52 posted on 10/09/2017 4:11:39 AM PDT by freepertoo
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To: Candor7

Genetic engineering.... finding the right sports


53 posted on 10/09/2017 4:58:16 AM PDT by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: Mears

Not me. I enjoy fruitcake.

I’ve got a couple small pieces left still from last year. (I bought 6 or 7 of them) and they are about to go on sale again.


54 posted on 10/09/2017 5:27:50 AM PDT by cyclotic (Trump tweets are the only news source you can trust.)
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To: 2CAVTrooper

I’m originally from Detroit area. Burn was an excellent documentary. Two things that stuck out.

One was the fire truck with 120,000 miles on it. That’s amazing for a vehicle that probably has a 3-4 mile working radius.

Second was the point they made that because Detroit firefighters as so deeply experienced in knocking down structure fires, they have developed methods that no one else in the country utilizes.

After watching Burn, I commented to my wife that they should open a structure fire academy to teach other departments their methods. If their methods are so good, other departments would be willing to pay to learn them and they could afford fuel, new equipment and get the alarm bells fixed.


55 posted on 10/09/2017 5:33:14 AM PDT by cyclotic (Trump tweets are the only news source you can trust.)
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To: Lera

Merely an excuse to discriminate this guy because of his race.


56 posted on 10/09/2017 6:20:12 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (WKU 2016 Boca Raton Bowl Champions)
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To: Jamestown1630

you have to be black to love fried chicken and watermelon?


57 posted on 10/09/2017 8:27:04 AM PDT by SPRINK
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To: SPRINK

I had never heard of fried chicken being associated with historical depictions of black people which they now find demeaning; but watermelon was:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_stereotype

I don’t personally know any black people who would even think about this. We have parties, we bring watermelon - and fried chicken.


58 posted on 10/09/2017 8:47:57 AM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Cecily
As I understand it, watermelons used to be used in patronizing stereotypes which suggested that black people were childlike and simpleminded and easily satisfied with things like eating watermelon. I once saw an old map of Florida (1950s vintage) which had little pictures of white people doing fun things like waterskiing...the only black people were two children happily eating watermelon.

The vast majority of white people today are unfamiliar with this bygone stereotype, as this thread has shown. Dollars to donuts the new fireman was oblivious to it or he would have brought donuts rather than a watermelon to the firehouse. So naturally instead of calling him into the office and explaining to him why some black people put a racist interpretation on his action, he is fired.

59 posted on 10/09/2017 2:08:47 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

This was not the sterotype

60 posted on 10/09/2017 2:14:11 PM PDT by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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