Paris, Texas: Trapped in Time

I have seen the Hollywood period movies (like O Brother, Where Art Thou) with the Klu Klux Klan men in white hoods, fire burning on crosses and the stage set up high for everyone to see with a noose attached to a beam, blowing in the wind.

It's really sad to know that this actually used to happen and it was so real for so many people. I can't imagine what this must have been like, to be black and live in fear of others who hate you and want to kill you because of the color of your skin!

Oh, wait, I said used to happen! This isn't really going on anymore, right? Well then somebody should ask what the heck is up in Paris, Texas?

In 2007, within a 3 month period, two girls did two separate and totally different bad deeds and got themselves into trouble. The first, a 14 year old white girl was charged with arson and only got probation as punishment. Then, just a few months later in the same town a second girl, also 14, shoved a hall monitor and got sentenced to 7 years in prison....why the drastic difference? Well because, silly, she was black!

There was then the story most of us heard about in October of 2008, where a young black man, Brandon McClelland was run over, dragged under a vehicle and partially dismembered. At first when authorities came upon the body, it was considered a hit and run. Two white men with ties to supremest groups were arrested, sparking protests from the KKK and counter protests from NAACP and other groups in little Paris, Texas.

So, I guess with this type of racism still going on in Paris, Texas I shouldn't have been shocked to read just one more piece of garbage that I came upon last week while browsing the CNN link on my phone.

Now it's 2010 and for more than a year black employees at Turner Industries' pipe factory complained of racism. Some examples include nooses hung around the plant, confederate flags on lunch boxes and racist slurs written on walls. The complaints have gone ignored by management and it has gotten so bad that some have been threatened with retaliation for even bringing it up. One specific worker was quoted “I’ve been called colored boy, coon, monkey,” Dontrail Mathis, 33, a painter’s helper, told the Dallas Morning News.

Things escalated once Barack Obama became president. A white man at the plant made a comment about the President: "if it ain't white, it ain't right."

Finally on April 14th, 2010 the EEOC came in and determined that African American workers were subjected to racial treatment and targeted by the management and threatened to be fired if they complained.

Now, not all the white employees were involved here, many tried to stand up for their co-workers but they too were retaliated against and even fired.

After the EEOC finished its investigation, the company came out with a letter to both its employees and to its customers. In his letter to employees, Turner Industries chairman and CEO Roland Toups said:

“As you may be aware, the EEOC has issued a statement that certain employees in our Paris, Texas fabrication plant were harassed or were victims of retaliation. I want you to understand that we strongly disagree with the EEOC’s findings, and we are defending our employment practices at that facility, as well as any job site that may be mentioned... Because of the personal and professional relationships we have forged with you, we are concerned that you might be misguided by any negative inferences or portrayals in the media,” Toups wrote.

What disgusts me most here is the blatant denial of the company's racism and the CEO's arrogance in blaming this on the media and the EEOC. Has he seen the pictures taken at his own plant?

According to No4Corners.com "Mathis, a painter’s helper, said one co-worker who found out he was married to a white woman told him, 'In the Bible, it says that white women shouldn’t mix with monkeys.' When he called Turner’s corporate office to complain about that incident, he heard nothing back, Mathis said."

When I read this I checked my watch -- is it really 2010 or are Mathis and his co-workers at Turner Industries stuck in a 1950's movie set?