Employee Survival Guide® - Cancel Culture is Illegal at Work!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to another edition of the Employee Survival Guide, where you can learn everything your employer does not want you to know about and more. Now, here's attorney Mark Carey. Hey, it's Mark here, and welcome to another edition of the Employee Survival Guide. Today, we're talking about cancel culture and why it's illegal at work. You were recently canceled by your coworker. What can you do about it? Cancel culture was thought to be an election year propaganda issue that would go away. Well, it hasn't. If you have not heard yet, cancel culture is the popular practice of withdrawing support for canceling public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered

Starting point is 00:00:40 objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming. Cancel culture has also evolved into erasing history, encouraging lawlessness, muting citizens, and violating free exchange of ideas, thoughts, and speech. Recently and more troubling, and this is my opinion, cancel culture has morphed into an outright physical assaults on Asian Americans. Employment laws prohibit cancel culture. Canceling someone at work by whatever means, either while at work or in social media, is illegal. Why is it illegal? To cancel a co-worker is to hold a bias against the employee because of their physical characteristics. In doing so, you are committing an act of intentional discrimination and violating state and federal laws discussed below. You are also violating the company code of conduct,

Starting point is 00:01:35 subjecting you to possible termination, wherein the company legally cancels you. Why would anyone want to do this? It is insane, but it's happening. There are state and federal statutes, namely Title VII, the Age Discrimination Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Equal Protection Act, I'm sorry, Equal Pay Act, that prohibit discrimination during employment because of that person's race, color, religion, sex, including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy, national origin, color, religion, sex, including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy, national origin, age, 40 and older, disability, or genetic information. It is also illegal to retaliate against a person because he or she complained about discrimination,

Starting point is 00:02:17 filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment investigation or lawsuit. But don't I have a right to freedom of speech at work? If you hold the opinion that you have a right to voice your opinion at work, i.e. canceling regarding any topic, issue, or person, you are grossly misunderstanding your constitutional rights and availing yourself to possible reprimand and termination. Remember, while at work, assuming only non-governmental employment here, you have no freedom of speech, with the one exception of whistleblowing, communications to management or government agencies, which we have written about in previous podcasts and blogs on this website in the past. So get over it already. Why would anyone want to jeopardize their income by using cancel culture? My only conclusion is

Starting point is 00:03:03 ignorance of the law and utter lack of respect for co-workers, aka stupidity. State and federal criminal statutes prohibit cancel culture. State and federal hate crime laws can be used to prosecute actions taken during working hours or arise from the employment relationship. Most states have hate crime laws, except for Arkansas, South Carolina, and Wyoming. Connecticut has a robust series of hate crime laws, except for Arkansas, South Carolina, and Wyoming. Connecticut has a robust series of hate crime laws on the books. Quoting the OLR research report from the state of Connecticut, quote, Connecticut has a number of statutes on hate crimes that protect a range of people,

Starting point is 00:03:37 enhance penalties for biased crimes, and allow an injured person to sue for money damages. The primary criminal statutes are the intimidation based on bigotry or biased crimes. Think of like Ku Klux Klan and like, you know, acts therein. These statutes provide three degrees of penalties. They address certain actions that intimidate or harass other persons because of actual or perceived race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression, end quote. On the federal level, the following laws make it a federal crime to cancel other employees because of the actual or perceived religion, race, color, natural origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. Yes, you can go to jail if you cancel someone at work, either in person or through social media. So you shouldn't be doing that.

Starting point is 00:04:31 There is the now famous Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. And I would include this part in the podcast because I want you to hear the synopsis of the act so you understand its scope and breadth. The Shepard-Byrd Act makes it a federal crime to willfully cause bodily injury or attempt to do so using a dangerous weapon because of the victim's actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin. The act also extends federal hate crime prohibitions to crimes committed because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person, only where the crime affected

Starting point is 00:05:10 interstate or foreign commerce or occurred within federal, special, maritime, and territorial jurisdiction. The Shepard-Byrd Act is the first statute allowing federal criminal prosecution of hate crimes motivated by the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. If you didn't remember, Mr. Shepard was brutally murdered because of his sexual orientation and left to die out in a field somewhere. I believe his body was strung with barbed wire, et cetera. But it was a gruesome thing that motivated the promotion of the statute. And it was a good law that was a little late in coming. And that's my opinion. There are other federal hate crime statutes related to fair housing, damage to religious property,

Starting point is 00:05:57 and violent interference with federally protected rights for those individuals participating in a federal protected activity such as a public education or employment. Cancel culture is simply un-American. The continued observance of cancel culture in 2021 is an un-American illegal act that is not consistent with American customs, principles, and traditions. Here, principles are equated with the aforementioned statutes, making it illegal to cancel co-workers at work. Cancel culture has also been a part of American history since our inception, whether we like it or not. The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights expressly prohibit cancel culture, as all men and women are created equally under the eyes of the law.

Starting point is 00:06:37 The only solution here to cancel culture is listen to both sides. The solution to cancel culture has always remained front and center, but recently intentionally obscured by the noise of the cancel culture movement itself. And by omission in the press and by governmental representatives trying to curry votes in an election season. Simply, we all need a little dose of Latin. The Latin phrase, audi alterum partum, which translates into, quote, listen to the other side. And why? Why do we need to have a dose of Latin? Integral to our American experience is the action of debate. We never said you had to agree with your opponent. Just listen and possibly learn. We enact laws in Congress and through state

Starting point is 00:07:23 legislatures via heated debate on public policy concerns. But we get the job done because it's of a higher calling. It's called democracy. Cancel culture is the antithesis of democracy, as it eliminates debate altogether and reinforces discrimination of all types. The longer cancel culture is tolerated, the faster the stars and stripes peel away from the very fabric of our collective being. Remember the golden rule. Do unto others as you would want them to do to you, and act responsibly as a United States citizen. We are all equal, no more and no less. If you'd like more information about this topic, please contact Karen and Associates PC on the web at capclaw.com.

Starting point is 00:08:04 Have a great week, and remember to listen.

Employee Survival Guide® - Cancel Culture is Illegal at Work!

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