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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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In my opinion,some of the questions from council, Loyd especially, had racial overtones. In other words, it appeared that filling the Fire Chief position would be all right if the choice were black. Loyd wanted a closed session to discuss the issue, but Bade said it might not fit the criteria. Bade represented the city in the first case of reverse discrimination.
Case 09-091124-CZ Neithercut Shawn Borowicz vs Flint and Dandre Williams is recent enough for council to remember. Allegations that Williams running the daily operations ordered Borowicz to operate the Paramedic rig although Williams was told Borowicz had a license that had lapsed and did not meet the positions requirements. Fired for disobeying a direct order, Borowicz sued. The medical Control Board, which controls Paramedics, had ordered Borowicz to refuse to operate the rig.
If council wants to look at lawsuits, consolidated cases:
Dandre Williams vs Flint 06-083578 CD
Ronald Stamps vs Flint 06-083607CD both Hayman
Flint's mayor, plus pick for fire chief, grilled by councilWednesday, May 05, 2010
Tags:flint, local, matt franklin
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Matt Franklin
More: Bio, E-mail, News Team
FLINT (WJRT) -- (05/05/10)--He's Flint Mayor Dayne Walling's pick to lead the Flint Fire Department. But Wednesday night City Council members grilled not only the mayor, but also retired firefighter John Linker.
That's because during the questioning, it was revealed Linker won two lawsuits against the city -- one for racial discrimination.
Also, some on council wanted to know if it was even necessary to put someone in the position that pays more than $90,000.
Linker has about 25 years of experience with the department and was last an assistant fire chief in 2002. Some question why he now wants to come back to run the department after suing the city.
"I don't know about you, but I am not satisfied with the performance of our fire department at the highest strategic level," Walling said.
He says Linker has a solid background for the non-union position.
"I actually regret filing the lawsuits," Linker said.
Among the questions Linker answered -- ones regarding two lawsuits against the city. In total he was awarded $230,000.
In the one from 2002, he claimed he was passed over for a promotion because he is white.
"Nobody should be subject to racism. That was the facts as I saw them," he said. "That was the facts that the judicial system upheld."
With a public safety director and acting fire chief already in place, the question was asked if a city already facing a multi-million-dollar deficit needs to add anyone other than firefighters to the department.
City Council did request additional information from the mayor's office. More than likely a vote on this issue will happen Monday afternoon.
(Copyright ©2010 WJRT-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Thu May 06, 2010 6:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Thu May 06, 2010 5:51 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Direct quote from Adversity.net posted by Linkers attorney Glenn Lenhoff. Note Hayman was the judge in the Stamps and Williams consolidated cases.
"2. Liberal Black Power Elite
The lower court judge who initially rejected Linker's claim of reverse discrimination is part of the liberal, black power elite in Flint. Judge Hayman is black. He has political and personal ties to the black, former Mayor of Flint, Woodrow Stanley. It was Mayor Stanley and his administration that appointed black fire chief Theron Wiggins who, as the court found, just plain didn't care for white firefighters.
Judge Hayman is also a politically liberal, activist jurist. He was a member of the liberal, pro-quota Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1991 to 1995, and served for a year as Vice Chair of the commission. He is a member of the NAACP which is strongly supportive of racial quotas. Hayman also has a history of liberal rulings on such matters as "environmental justice".
CLINTONESQUE CIVIL RIGHTS WORKSHOP:
Since 1997 hundreds of Flint officials and employees, including black Chief Wiggins and black Mayor Woodrow Stanley, have attended an intensive workshop titled "Undoing Racism" funded in part by the liberal Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
Flint FD Index
1. Introduction and Overview
2. Liberal Black Power Elite
3. News Stories
4. Appeals Court Ruling
5. Lawyer for Plaintiff
6. Related Reading
B. Flint Firefighter Awarded $150,000 Feb. 14, 2005 (New Page)
These workshops strongly endorse the notion that only blacks and other designated minorities are victims of racism, and that whites, in particular white males, are the exclusive purveyors of racism. The workshops are mute on the subject of black racism toward whites.
Flint's "Undoing Racism" workshop is so ultra-liberal in it's orientation to racial discrimination that ex-president Bill Clinton openly praised the workshop in his Pathways to One America in the 21st Century: Promising Practices for Racial Reconciliation. Clinton's Pathways to One America had very little to do with equal treatment under the law and had very much to do with enforcing racial quotas. <<Last known link to "Pathways" reference:
http://www.sojo.net/archives/magazine/index.cfm/mode/printer_friendly/
action/sojourners/issue/soj0009/article/000944.html>>
With Mr. Linker's former, black chief, Theron Wiggins, attending and endorsing workshops such as this it is small wonder the former chief was found guilty of anti-white racial discrimination. " |
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Thu May 06, 2010 6:19 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Many liberal whites who attended these phony sessions were furious that they were considered racist by the virtue of their skin color.
Lenhoff was right. How can a chief who calls his non-black employees racial epithets initiate an undoing racism session? He was even sued by a Native American.
Groundswell
Undoing Racism in Flint
Michigan city turns dialogue into action.
by Margaret Williamson
printer-friendly version
Five hundred community leaders in Flint, Michigan, attended intensive training this spring to understand and combat racism. The Flint "undoing racism" movement—highlighted in the Clinton administration’s publication Pathways to One America in the 21st Century: Promising Practices for Racial Reconciliation—is now a national model.
Flint’s mayor, Woodrow Stanley, proclaimed an "Undoing Racism" week this spring, and participants in the anti-racism workshops have included the mayor, fire chief Therron Wiggins, members of the print and electronic media, community activists, block club presidents, corporate leaders, city council members, foundations, the arts community, and a university chancellor. At least 100 teens who participated in Undoing Racism retreats are now active in the movement.
The seeds of this year’s events were planted in 1997, when the Community Coalition and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation convened a diverse group of 40 community leaders for a half-day meeting presented by the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond. The Peoples Institute is a grassroots training organization founded in New Orleans in 1980, with branches in California, Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota, and New York. Civic leaders attending the briefing agreed that Undoing Racism workshops could be helpful in the city’s effort to address racism. Flint had recently been identified as the sixth most-segregated city of its size in the United States, which lent a sense of urgency.
The Community Coalition received a grant from the Mott Foundation to organize four Undoing Racism workshops. Twenty people participated in the first workshop, held in November 1997; 125 attended the following three workshops, including the mayor and fire chief, who decided to encourage city employees to attend future sessions.
The Undoing Racism workshops explore the politics of race in the United States. Those in attendance are asked pointed questions: Why are people poor? Do institutions perpetuate racism; if so, how? Do you personally perpetuate racism knowingly or unknowingly; if so, how? Participants learn that the concept of race is a specious term that is based on the premise of white superiority, and that white people benefit by the race construct with institutionalized privilege granted to all white citizens. Further, participants explore internalized racial superiority and internalized racial inferiority.
Why did the mayor and fire chief think it important for members of the fire department to attend Undoing Racism workshops? Fire department personnel are required to work together as a team; a life can depend on another’s actions. The needed cooperation could be hindered if anyone thinks that people of other races are inferior or superior based on skin color. In the Undoing Racism workshops, fire department personnel have the opportunity to explore these questions, discuss race issues, and more often than not find that they are more alike than they ever imagined.
The Undoing Racism workshops have not cured racism in the Flint fire department, but it is a beginning. Thirty-seven fire department personnel have attended the workshops, as well as 55 other city workers and administrators. The city’s mayor and fire chief have shown courage and provided a model for others by taking the difficult step of examining racism in city government.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON has served as president of the Community Coalition in Flint, Michigan, since May 1995. For information on how to bring Undoing Racism workshops to your area, contact The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, 1444 North Johnson St., New Orleans, LA 70116; (504) 944-2354; fax (504) 944-6119; pisabnola@aol.com.
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Thu May 06, 2010 6:53 am |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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You might find this handy to keep on hand. 
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_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Thu May 06, 2010 7:30 am |
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ConcernedCitizen
F L I N T O I D
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I am so sick of the racist issue. Some of my brethren keep dredging up issues from the past to stir up things in the present. It's disgusting. I no longer have to move to the back of the bus or use separate bathrooms. My white friends have never owned slaves and had nothing to do with discrimination that occurred when they were young or before they were born. Our society would be much better if we focused on problems of today and left problems of yesterday in the past.
These people that constantly try to turn everything into a racist issue have two problems. The first is that they are too lazy to use legitimate means to take care of problems, so they scream racism. That laziness is the same thing that kept them from becoming educated enough to come up with legitimate solutions. Was it easy getting a good education and working myself up from a bad situation? No it wasn't, but I didn't make excuses, I worked hard to get where I am.
The second thing is that these same people are some of the most racist people I know. They cry racism, but the biggest racist in their world in right in their mirror! |
_________________
"When people fear their government, there is TYRANNY.
When the government fears the people, there is Liberty"
Thomas Jefferson |
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Thu May 06, 2010 7:15 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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| and the band played on............... |
_________________
even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Fri May 07, 2010 7:32 am |
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lacyw
F L I N T O I D
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Concerned,
I couldn't agree with you more. What I think is even sadder is that some people I have worked with in the past were calling everyone and everything else racist when they didn't get their way. It infuriated me that these people would say stuff like that. They are too young to remember civil rights movement and have no desire to educate themselves about it. I knew more about that particular part of history than they did (big history buff) and they were still spouting this stuff off.
There are legitimate cases. One in my life sticks out the most. They singled out a black co-worker of mine years ago. She was the only African American in management. Everything they did was deliberate to try to find enough reason to fire her. When they did, I said f-u that's sooo wrong and absolutely racist, threw down my keys and my badge and walked right out the door behind her. I told her if she wanted to file a suit, I would back her up 110%!
I didn't do it because she was black, I did it because it was the right thing to do and I would have done the same were she any other race,nationality, etc. I was only 19 at the time and had never walked out of a job before. I called my mom and told her what I had done and while she had strong opinions on work ethic and being responsible, she also said that I was the one who had to sleep with myself at night. I have never regretted that decision. |
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Fri May 07, 2010 12:14 pm |
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ConcernedCitizen
F L I N T O I D
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lacyw,
I applaud you and any other person who stand up for what is right and good, even when it may cost you!
I have lost two jobs, once for standing up for a person wronged and once for standing up for an issue. Do I regret it? Yes in the short term because I suffered financially. But ultimately no, because I can look at myself in the mirror and respect myself.
Too many people take the easy way out. That is why our society has deteriorated to where it is now. It is too bad and a trend we need to reverse. |
_________________
"When people fear their government, there is TYRANNY.
When the government fears the people, there is Liberty"
Thomas Jefferson |
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Sun May 09, 2010 12:13 pm |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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| "Because it's wrong" is a concept that people choose to ignore these days. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Sun May 09, 2010 12:24 pm |
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