The Democratic Afrosphere: Bigotry

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Holding Corporations Accountable

After a young Bay Area woman was killed on the job, her young son was denied worker's compensation death benefits. And the reason is causing outrage. More HERE

H/T to Christina Springer at Christina Springer blog for her coverage of the unfortunate story about the victim of a Color Aroused (racist) Hate Crime and how death benefits were denied by Dollar Tree.

More HERE

This story has been followed by ABC News who reports, It was Taneka Talley's greatest wish to see her son head off to college. It was why she took extra shifts at work and set her sights on promotions.

But she was stabbed to death in the Fairfield, Calif., Dollar Tree where she worked in March 2006, by a white man who reportedly attacked her simply because she was black.

Now, Talley's mother is fighting to get her daughter's workers compensation death benefits, which, according to the family's lawyer, have been denied because the killer's targeting her as a black person established a "personal connection" that the company says releases them from having to pay.

"For them to deny her, it's just outrage," Carol Frazier, Talley's mother, told ABCNews.com. "She worked hard for them at their store so her son could have the best."

California law states an employer must pay death benefits if the employee was killed on the job and if the death was a result of the person's employment, said Moira Stagliano of Boxer & Gerson in Oakland, Calif., who is Frazier's attorney.

But the law also allows benefits to be denied if the death stemmed from a personal connection between the victim and the attacker, such as a husband who kills his wife on company grounds.

According to Stagliano, the benefits were denied on the basis that the suspect in Talley's slaying, 45-year-old Tommy Thompson, allegedly made the relationship with Talley personal by choosing to attack her specifically based on the color of her skin.

Thompson and Talley had no previous known interaction with each other.

Dollar Tree did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment. Specialty Risk Services, which is owned by The Hartford Financial Services Group, did not comment on the specific case in a statement issued to ABCNews.com, only saying that the company was Dollar Tree's claim administrator.

In a letter to Stagliano dated Sept. 12, the law firm Gray & Prouty wrote that Talley's stabbing was "purely racially motivated. As such, it is our belief that our denial in this matter is proper."

However, when contacted for comment, a spokesman for Gray & Prouty declined to comment on the case or say whether the firm's client was Dollar Tree, SRS or both.

'Miscarriage of Justice'

The basis for the denial was "ridiculous," said Edgar Romano, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group. "It's a completely implausible reason to deny benefits."

Lynch Mob McCain, and his Sidekick Sarah Palin

Enough is Enough! Stop inciting lynch mobs John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Mark Karlin's Editor's Blog over at buzzflash.com says it best, It's a John McCain/Sarah Palin Lynch Mob politics.

As Mark writes, "There was the raw smell of scary stupid ignorance in the air, and even Jon Stewart could barely conceal his disgust with what was supposed to be a comic sketch.

Palin has been going around the nation inciting mobs with the kind of emotional appeals (although in a more coded form) that one used to find at segregationist rallies. A video of some rabidly ignorant crowd at a Palin speech in Ohio has gone viral on the Internet, and it’s a brief and scary insight into the reality that the ugly, bigoted heart of America’s dark underside is still beating strong – and has just gotten a second life with the incendiary direction of the McCain campaign.

Given that the mainstream media has still not picked up on the video of Sarah Palin welcoming, this year in 2008, the Alaskan Independence Party to their yearly meeting –- which we have posted on BuzzFlash several times -– it is hard to understand how the irony of a governor who has clearly documented close ties to a group that regards the United States as an "occupying force" gets away with the ugly farce of basically calling Obama a terrorist. (Yes, it’s in coded language, but that is what Palin and McCain are doing, inciting the fears of the "dark other," the man with the middle name of "Hussein.") One of the bigots at the Palin Ohio rally said that terrorism was in Obama’s "bloodline." This is the kind of talk that brought Hitler to power.

In 2008, the McCain campaign has decided to use the Salem Witch Trials as its model for running for the highest office in our great land."

More HERE

Meanwile, The head of the nation's biggest labor federation is joining the chorus of voices warning about the increasingly angry crowds coming to John McCain's campaign events. This as reported by the Boston Globe.

At rallies this week, McCain's criticisms of Democrat Barack Obama have been met with shouts of "terrorist," "liar," and other harsh words.

"Sen. John McCain, Gov. Sarah Palin and the leadership of the Republican party have a fundamental moral responsibility to denounce the violent rhetoric that has pervaded recent McCain and Palin political rallies," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, which has endorsed Obama. "When rally attendees shout out such attacks as 'terrorist' or 'kill him' about Sen. Barack Obama, when they are cheered on by crowds incited by McCain-Palin rhetoric -- it is chilling that McCain and Palin do nothing to object.

AAPP: Lets not forget how this all started. People throughout America have been tracking it on Youtube. It all started when McCain and Palin incited almost a color and idealogical war.

Cross Posted on African American Political Pundit.com