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Monday, October 31, 2011 | 10:08am
Harassment is in the Eye of the Beholder
A discussion of sexual harassment laws in light of revelations concerning Herman Cain
Let me start by making one thing clear… I am and always have been against sexual harassment in the workplace.
Sexual harassment is an insult to women, an insult to the business relationship and the company that a person owes loyalty to; and is, in my mind, an act of violence (mental torture) against those it is directed at.
But that being said, there is a serious gap in the way that sexual harassment laws are defined.
(I mention this because the media is starting to float charges of sexual harassment against Herman Cain, which brings up the whole subject).
By traditional corporate definition (at least the corporations I worked at), sexual harassment is defined as follows:
‘…any act, gesture, motion or comment that is of a sexual nature; and makes a person feel as if they are in a hostile or intimidating environment…’
Here’s my problem… it is a crime that is defined by the victim; and instead of being based on clear and undisputed fact, is determined by how the victim interrupts what is going on around them.
Compare this, for example, to bank robbery. If a man walks in and robs a bank, he has committed the crime based objective fact. It doesn’t matter WHY he robbed the bank. It doesn’t matter if the teller was afraid or not. The action itself constitutes the crime, and the facts exist as an unchanging event.
But in sexual harassment laws, it is entirely different. Here’s a silly example of what I mean:
Your female coworker walks in one day, and you say ‘that’s a nice pair of shoes you have on this morning’. Under normal circumstances, that would be nothing more than innocent office chatter.
But what if your female coworker had a foot fetish (where she gained sexual gratification by feet, shoes, etc)?
Now the situation is different. Now, the same comment (that’s a nice pair of shoes you have on) is a sexual comment in the workplace.
It gets worse. You’ve now committed half the crime (a comment of a sexual nature), but the rest depends on how the female coworker takes the comment.
Because within the law there is also the question as to whether the comment is UNWANTED.
Which means… if your coworker is secretly in love with you, the sexual comment about her shoes is welcome, and she feels happy to hear it.
But if she hates you, the comment makes her feel uncomfortable, and makes her feel as if she is in a hostile environment.
The comment, therefore, may or may not be a crime. Depending on how it is received, the person who says it will either be knocking boots in the copy room or looking for a new job. And all of it depends on how one person FEELS about what they have heard.
So to recap… Sexual harassment is defined as:
Any act, gesture or comment that is of a sexual nature – defined by the victim
… that makes a person feel as if they are in a hostile environment – defined by the victim
This is a dangerous way to define laws.
Back to Herman Cain. It’s too early in the story to know what the facts are around this. I don’t know if he’s guilty or not guilty. Here is a link to the story…
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67194.html
Cain’s response, so far, has not been believable. He’s trying to stick with ‘I don’t remember’, but that’s not going to cut it.
If the story is true, there was a cash settlement and confidentiality agreement with the accusers.
If that happened to me, trust me… I would remember. I bet YOU would remember. For Cain to say that he doesn’t just cannot be believed.
FILED IN Editorials, News, Rumors & Gossip
Exactly. If you ever want to throw dirt someones way, accuse them of sexual harassment. The term itself is VERY Gray. It could be as subtle as a facial expression, or a word taken out of context, or could be as blatant as someone getting slapped with a penis.
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Any case of sexual harrasment on the job I have ever heard of, was usually due to a guy feeling too comfortable around females at the job and the guy saying something inappropiate or making an inappropiate gesture. The guy is usually fired, and the female usually quits within 2 months due everyone else walking on egg shells everytime she is in the area, and she starts to fell overtly awkward.
That’s why any business I’ve run had a strict policy against employees dating each other.
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When they’re dating, they’re all over each other wasting company time.
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When they’re breaking up, they’re all drama, wasting company time.
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And you’re right… both eventually quit or get fired.
You are totally right. My wife and I met on the job. If one of us called out the other would call out. If one of us was late from break, we both were late from break. Instead of dealing with a random belligerent act of one employee, you have to deal with the conspiracy between two employees.
Yeah that sounds about right Mr. Bad Guy. I just want to see what actually happened. But it feels like the only way they can stop the mediocre rise of Herman Cain. No one wants to hire someone accused of any type of Sexual Harassment True or false.
I agree that it is important to see what facts come out before deciding.
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There’s a BIG difference between a boss telling his assistant ‘f*ck me or you’re fired’ and, say, everyone drunk at a convention and people saying too much.
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But yes… being accused is almost enough; unless you have a strong case for your innocence.
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That’s one of the reasons why Newt, despite his good showing at the debates, will probably never get the nomination.
It’s a smear campaign. Democrats do fear and despise conservative Blacks. We are after all supposed to believe the Democratic party is better for Blacks just because they say so you know.
Mr.JimmyT …..Let me spit some venom at u playboy, neither 1 give a damn about u Demon….crats R so cowardly and pretend 2 b on the side of the common ppl of any color, fight 4 our civil liberties blah blah , but on the other Hand RepubliKKKlans basic objective is 2 get rid of any1 Darker than a napkin and that “1 toKKKen black” that is usually in the RepubliKKKlan circle, Pee Party, or Grand-Dragons Oppressing People G.O.P that is usually more than enough Darkeez 4 them. Example KKKongressman J.C.Watts aka Just Coon’n Watts.Now they have Big Daddy Cain another Hoe 4 the RepubliKKKlan party Sarah Palin was the 1st hoe . I hope he does not get caught up in any BS sexxxual harrassment past coming back 2 haunt him bullshit, bcuz I really want him 2 go all the way and get his deb8 on with Pres.Obeezee run in 2012 which would again be historic.If a pizza CEO beats out Obeezee then we r in more trouble even more than we r now.
Not venomous at all my friend, you just live in a different world than I.
O how so my friend ? We both live in AmeriKKKa land of the ……well it’s all bullshit. Anywho how do we live in diffy worlds Young Pimp’n?
@2NA$$TEE…
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I’m going to have to disagree with you on a number of things…
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First – I would trust a pizza/burger CEO more than I would almost anyone else. As someone who spent 20+ years involved at one level or another in the restaurant industry, Cains food resume was alone enough for me.
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Let me tell you about chain restaurants like Burger king (which Cain ran for philly)… Your profit on each piece of food sold is about $0.21. You move probably 1000 cars through their lanes each day; and your successful stores are making $40,000 per week.
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At any given moment (trust me on this), you have at least 1 cashier per location whose trying to clean you out; the quality of the product sold (fast food) means that employees are constantly eating your profit, or outright stealing cases of meat and cheese. And the customers will stop coming if the wait in line is greater than 2 minutes per car.
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The point being: If you can run a profitable restaurant, you can run any business; and that includes the government.
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Next…
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From your comment here and in other posts, you don’t like the dems because they’re trying to play you. You don’t like the repubs, or the tea party, blacks in power, and (probably) the kid down the street who always kicks your garbage cans (lol).
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I guess what I’m saying… You’ve ruled out almost the entire population in one form or another. Does it really come down to you against the world?
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Finally… One of these days I’m going to post a conservative manifesto. The bottom line is that considering everything, you’re better off with the republicans.
Ok I will give u that on balancing budgets and working with the common ppl ok but what about foreign affairs, military budgets,laws put in place . I know that is what advisers and what not r 4 but u have 2 know a bit about actual politriKKKs not just balancing some resturant chains . Not knocking hustles but R u saying he will do better then Obeezee running this “run down” b4 Obeezee got in office KKKuntry called AmeriKKKa?I was reading about his 666 plan xxxcuse 999 tax plan not so sure on that 1. I wish Jig Daddy Cain luck tho.
I do believe it is a smear campaign, but it is more than likely being conducted by the one of other Republican candidates to stiffle Cain’s gaining momentum. Now all the Democrats have to do is sit back and hope it all collapses, like the McCain/Palin ticket.
Co-sign kind of like what us as blacks do on a regular 2 1 another as KKKasper kicks back and watches us kill 1 another. Chuuurch!!
I think that’s more of a community issue. I have my own philosophy on black on black and interacial relations that others do not agree with, but cant deny it as fact. But then again I moved out the “hood” almost ten years ago. So, I’m probably seen as bad as those spectators.
Who is afraid a conservative Black man? The only folks that should be Republicans are the folks that own Big corporations. Then i could understand why they vote for less regulation,No Unions, and F*ck the common man votes. Anyone else is cutting off your nose to spite your face. They are both Political parties and will say almost anything to get in office. But with that being said i will never vote for a person that Blatantly tells me that I don’t need good health care because i am not rich enough to have it. Or that paying a fair share should only before the people making less than $250K. Or that the trickle down actually works and that is why all of our jobs are over seas… LOL If you are going to screw me then at least tell me ahead of time so i can go grab the Vaseline and a towel.
Lol u r so right how can any1 making less than 500k be down with the republiKKKlan party when they don’t even acknowledge ur vote nor want it . I see all these trailer trash,methhead KKKaspers here in OK.K.Klanhoma talking bout how AmeriKKKA has went 2 shit since some1 other than a KKK member is sitting in the Outhouse. Yet want 2 vote republiKKKlan with no money .RepubliKKKlans h8 poor ppl blk wht don’t matter . Thats Y they want smaller Government so they can spend more on themselves . Watch how KKKuntry goes down further when a republIKKKlan takes office,more scandals,more of the same when Hitler Bush was in or more .
I could care less about all this BS with Cain, Abel or any other politician…to the theme: sexual harassment is very subjective. I have worked in places where there are hundreds of employees and there is soooo much crap going in between people, it’s ridiculous, and most of those people are married (to people not working there!)…In my younger days, I could have certainly been charged with sexual harassment, by the letter of the law. But I never harassed or intiminated anybody. She was either with it, or if she wasn’t, I moved on to someone else and didn’t pay her any more attention…..I met my wife at work too. However, I was older and I never kicked it to her while we worked together. I got in touch with her after I was working elsewhere (and she was at a new job too). She had enough sense to not date anyone at work, and by this time, so did I……I don’t want to trivialize sexual harassment, because many people do get harassed and intimidated, but most of it is human nature, or people just being horny and inappropriate…..my wife is a nurse and she tells me she gets sexually harassed daily not only by patients, but by all kinds of hospital staff. She just deflects it and keeps going on about her work. It would be too much to file a report every time someone said something that could be constituted as harassment…people need to get a grip (including people who harass).