This was not the sterotype
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 ...
Yellow watermelon
Fired guy should sue. Not for the Jo back but for damages and disparagement.
White people eat the same food black people eat. Nothing racist about it.
Now if he put the watermelon in blackface,....
If this fire department is really that stupid, he’s better off not working for them anyway. Let them stew in their smothering ignorance!
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
Go F your ‘racial insensitivity’!
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.
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...
Paging Gallagher.
Genetic engineering.... finding the right sports
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.
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.
Merely an excuse to discriminate this guy because of his race.
you have to be black to love fried chicken and watermelon?
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.
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.
This was not the sterotype
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