As a 'citizen journalist', with over 250 blog sites, I know that we depend on the First Amendment to allow all of us to freely express our opinions.
We do NOT need Bank of America firing people they find out are their employees for opinions expressed in online social media.
So my B of A account is now closed, I think this one went back to about 2012, didn't think to ask when closing it. B of A does not deserve my account (or yours) and now they don't have mine.
Just FYI, I never saw the original posts and only know of them from the AJC article below. I really do not need to know more as the former employee was well within their rights to make her opinions known.
B of A has no valid claim against here as to her having sullied the name of their bank. B of A is already considered the worst major bank in the USA, stupid stuff like this simply re-enforces our perception of that.
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Bank of America says it has fired employee for racist Facebook rant
By Ernie Suggs esuggs@ajc.com
Another day, another person fired because of social media.
Thursday’s example was Christine McMullen Lindgren, an Atlanta-based employee at Bank of America.
Lindgren posted recently that she hated Facebook in a rant telling blacks to “go back to Africa, get over your pity party. You created this hatred and your own kind that brought your great-great-grandparents over here and sold them.”
It is unclear who Lindgren is specifically targeting in her rant.
“Do something with your lives and your children’s lives. I’m sure you don’t work, collect welfare and teach hatred (to) your poor children all 5 of them you can’t afford because I pay for them,” continued Lindgren, who identified herself as a personal banker in her profile.
But she’s a personal banker no more, at least not at Bank of America.
Andy Aldridge, a senior vice president and communications manager for the bank, confirmed Thursday afternoon that Lindgren had worked at the bank and that the comments were “reprehensible and unacceptable.”
“We have investigated the matter and terminated her,” Aldridge said. “She no longer works for Bank of America.”
Aldridge said the bank even took the unprecedented step of announcing and confirming Lindgren’s firing on their Twitter account and, yes, Facebook page.
Hundreds of people commented on Lindgren’s post.
“I looked at her page and saw she had black friends. So this didn’t sit well with my spirit,” said Cheryl McCall Wiggins, one of those who weighed in. “So are you saying that this is how you feel about your friends? Or are your friends the good black people and you were talking about the bad black people?”
The very Facebook that Lindgren loathed reacted in kind, blasting her for her comments and flooding Bank of America with calls, emails and social media posts.
“Christine McMullen Lindgren wrote a horrifically racist, anti-Black comment on Facebook and she proudly listed you, Bank of America, as her employer,” one person posted on Facebook. “Does she represent the racist values you strive for or the ones you’ve promised to abandon?”
“Does Christine McMullen Lindgren really work for you? If she is one of your employees, are you going to take action against her?” someone else wrote. “Failure to do so sends a very loud message to your current African-American customers. I’m sure possible new customers will have a second thought before opening an account with Bank of America if this is not addressed properly.”
“I hope this company’s values do not align with Christine’s,” wrote another woman, offering to send the bank screenshots. “Let this be a lesson to those who choose to be nasty on the Internet and believe their actions have no repercussion. Please, let me and others who have reported her know that this situation will be taken care of. Thank you.”
By 1 p.m. Thursday, Bank of America had let them know.
Nicole Huckaby posted several comments about Lindgren’s rant on her Face-book page, as well as screen-shots of her telephone calls to Bank of America. She said the bank’s comment on Lindgren’s termination didn’t go far enough.
“They owe black people an apology,” Huckaby said. “The bank didn’t write the post, but at the end of the day, she represented the bank.”
Huckaby doesn’t personally bank at Bank of America, but she said her daughter closed her account Thursday morning in protest.
Aldridge said the company is also reaching out to individual customers who have contacted the bank.
Unreachable has been Lindgren. She deleted her Facebook page.
------------------ Account now Closed -------------------
If you support what we call our 'Freedom of the Press', whether it is in the AJC, on a blog like this one or posted on Facebook, you should close your Bank of America accounts and let them know you have done so and why you closed them.
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