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EEOC, ever heard of it?

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” ~ Maya Angelo

Some, or maybe just me see some things as simple basic tenants of decency. How you treat others. How you speak to others and how you speak of others. Simple right? Maybe not.

Have you heard about this EEOC? Interestingly enough it’s a government agency that sets, laws, regulations and guidance on employment discrimination. I think most people know about this or some form of it. Not just me and my colleagues who work close to or within human resources at companies, or the business we run that these rules and regulations are set for. Feels ironic to write that, considering.

Just in case, here is part of their overview.

“The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to discriminate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

Most employers with at least 15 employees are covered by EEOC laws (20 employees in age discrimination cases). Most labor unions and employment agencies are also covered.

The laws apply to all types of work situations, including hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits.”

Now since this website ends with .gov, I’m going to assume that it is the government who is setting these laws and regulations. But then you know what happens when you assume. I will say this, that it has and is part of my everyday life because of my profession. I have to know and understand what it all means and do things to ensure that I and the company I work for are compliant. Sometimes it’s a pain, but it is there to protect all of us, not just a few of us. That’s something that I feel often gets lost. I think that the possibility for the table to turn and those who feel they are safe because of who they “are” may one day find themselves on the other side to the table.

I find it even more interesting that some can do or say some things that I would be immediately fired for, yet still have their job just because of their position.

There’s age, disability, equal compensation, genetic information, harassment, national origin, pregnancy, race/color, wait let’s take a look at that one, national origin discrimination. What might that mean? Do this for me, stop reading for a few minutes and come up with a few things that you think that might mean.

Go ahead … I’ll wait.

Ok, so rather than try to re-word it and potentially be accused of interpretation or skewed perception, I’m just going to copy and paste right from the National Origin Discrimination page on eeoc.gov.

“National origin discrimination involves treating people (applicants or employees) unfavorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world, because of ethnicity or accent, or because they appear to be of a certain ethnic background (even if they are not).

National origin discrimination also can involve treating people unfavorably because they are married to (or associated with) a person of a certain national origin.
Discrimination can occur when the victim and the person who inflicted the discrimination are the same national origin.”

National Origin & Harassment
“It is unlawful to harass a person because of his or her national origin. Harassment can include, for example, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person’s national origin, accent or ethnicity. Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).

The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.”

So let’s look at this; “Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment…”

Yes it says “doesn’t prohibit”, but then it goes on to say, “it is illegal when it is so frequent or severe it creates…

So. Here is one part that this(our) government agency works to ensure people have protection.

Yet … “go back where you came from”

I believe that clearly, the president has crossed this line more than once. If he worked ANYWHERE else, termination would be swift and more than necessary. Office or position give no one license to abuse or harass another human with out consequences.

Yet … “why are we having all these people from shithole countries here”

If you in anyway think or feel this is ok, then I am lost. Your being okay with any amount of this is lost on me and no amount of anything will sway me from the opinion that this man is not suitable to be President of the United States. This office is to be held in high esteem and should hold the utmost respect.

Yet … Latina Miss Universe, “Miss Housekeeping”
Yet … “Pocahontas”
Yet … “these aren’t people, these are animals”
Yet … yet, yet.

We have an amoral, disrespectful, brash, vulgar person placed in the most respected office in the country by the Electoral College. An individual, that must be voted out, impeached, censured, something, anything before he completely breaks us all.

I was raised in an environment where respect is earned, not given because of status or position. I have none for this man. I will allow him no more space in my head.

And so we are clear, NOT MY PRESIDENT.

Never has been, never will be. Period.