Where are Black Children Safe?, by Roxane Gay

[admin]

Atlanta marketing company fires employee after viral selfie surfaces with racist comments about co-worker’s son
BY NICOLE HENSLEY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
October 5, 2015, 11:32 PM

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

Gerod Roth, pictured in a selfie with a little boy named Cayden, was fired from his job at Polaris Marketing Group days after posting the photo that attracted racist comments.

A former employee at an Atlanta-based marketing firm is at the center of a firestorm after a photo he posted of himself online with a colleague's black son unleashed a wave of racist bile from the man's friends and other Internet hatemongers.

Polaris Marketing Group employee Gerod Roth was fired after snapping a seemingly innocuous selfie alongside 3-year-old Cayden Jenkins and posting it to Facebook on Sept. 16, triggering an immediate torrent of hateful comments, including "I didn't know you were a slave owner" and "But Massuh, I dindu nuffin" while also calling the young boy "Kunta Kinte."

It was unclear what prompted the string of hateful jibes, but at some point Roth - who goes by the name Geris Hilton on Facebook - replied to a friend asking "Dude where the hell did you get a black kid??" by saying, "He was feral."

Polaris Marketing Group President Michael Da Graca Pinto called the Facebook comments "disgusting," but insisted Roth's Sept. 29 termination two weeks after the post was the result of unrelated issues at work.

“It breaks my heart that Sydney and her adorable son Cayden were subjected to such hateful, ignorant and despicable behavior,” Pinto wrote in a statement over the weekend.“Cayden visits my office almost every afternoon after daycare, he's sat at my dinner table,”

The entire post was taken out of context, Roth told WAGA-TV, explaining that his intended meaning addressed a comment asking where he found Cayden.


Gerod Roth faced the media to defend himself.

“I just really feel upset, not only with myself, but also with the character that was based on the comments my friends made,” Roth told the TV station on Monday. “I feel as if, not only poor Cayden himself has been victimized, but also myself for being targeted.”

Little Cayden's mother, Sydney Shelton, took to Facebook with a handful of photos of her smiling son, saying those images should be what people see of Cayden — not the viral selfie captured in what appears to be the Polaris office.

He is nothing like the characterization woven in Roth’s since-deleted post, his tearful mother later explained.

“He is not a deaf child, he is not mute. He has never been abandoned,” Shelton told WAGA-TV. “He is a well-loved, fun-loving hyperactive 3-year-old.

A GoFundMe page started by a Phoenix, Ariz., woman, Britt Turner, is collecting donations for a college fund for Cayden in case the viral story marrs his name for future search results.

“I would hate for him to find all of this negativity surrounding his name,” Turner wrote.

Shelton is glad Roth is no longer employed at Polaris, but ultimately she is looking out for Cayden’s well-being.

“I do everything that I can to make sure he never has to want or need for anything,” Shelton cried. “To see people bashing him -- a small helpless child -- it breaks my heart.”

Polaris Marketing Group
October 2 at 3:20pm

This morning I was disgusted to learn that one of my former employees made several racially charged comments on his personal Facebook page. Even worse, the comments were directed toward the son of another employee.

It breaks my heart that Sydney and her adorable son Cayden were subjected to such hateful, ignorant and despicable behavior. Cayden visits my office almost every afternoon after daycare, he's sat at my dinner table and I consider him a part of the PMG family.

The atrocious lies, slander and racism he and his mother have been forced to endure are wholly intolerable. Myself and the entire PMG family in no way condones this kind of behavior and would never willingly associate with anyone who does.

It has no place in the world.

PMG has terminated the employee responsible and will ensure that none of the businesses that we associate with will ever do business with him again.

Sincerely,

Michael Da Graca Pinto
President
Polaris Marketing Group, Inc.

[admin]

Cop fractures 12-year-old girl’s jaw, ribs during city pool arrests caught on video
by the Grio
June 17, 2015

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

Fairfield, Ohio — Krystal Dixon had just dropped off her kids and nieces and nephews at the pool for a day of summer fun when she got a call that the kids were being asked to leave because one of them wasn’t wearing a swimsuit. She promised to grab the forgotten swimwear and bring it to the pool, but when she arrived, she and a few of the teenage girls had to be rushed to the hospital following a clash with police officers who had arrived to escort Dixon and her family from the premises.

Dixon and her family provided vastly different accounts of what happened than the police did. The family accused cops of excessive force, pointing to the fact that Dixon, who is pregnant, had to be checked out by doctors after the incident and that cops pepper sprayed teenage girls. What’s more, Dixon’s 12-year-old niece, who officers grabbed by the neck and slammed against the car, suffered a fractured jaw and broken ribs.

Dixon said that she arrived to the pool and was informed by staff that the kids had broken pool rules when the swimsuit-less child swam in his clothes. They were asked to leave, and Dixon started to gather up her children. That’s when, according to Dixon, a park ranger began following her and took out his handcuffs when teens approached to see what was going on.

When Dixon could not provide ID because she did not have it on her, the officer grabbed her arm, and the kids asked him to let her go. From there, the situation escalated.

While Dixon claims the officers used unnecessary force, Fairfield police officer Doug Day said that “they refused to leave and became even more verbally aggressive and belligerent” and that Dixon’s sister “started jumping on the park ranger’s back.”

“Our officers used great restraint,” Day said. “At one point, one of our officers felt his gun was being taken away from him. The only weapon he used was the OC spray, to get someone off the back of the officer.”

But not everyone is convinced of the officers’ account, with Bishop Bobby Hilton, a Cincinnati pastor who belongs to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, saying, “They’re saying a 12-year-old was assaulting somebody and resisting being arrested. Please tell me, where is she assaulting somebody? Why did the officer have to grab her by the neck and push her against the car? It’s just not right.”

Clyde Bennett, an attorney for Dixon, added: “I could surmise or opine on why [pool staff] wanted them out. They said they’re not appropriately dressed. I’m not convinced that’s why they wanted them out of the pool.”