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U.S. gov. discriminated against 100+ black Secret Service agents - settles lawsuit

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S

Secret Fawful

Member
Make that a lawsuit it took decades to settle.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wire...imination-lawsuit-44844881?cid=social_fb_abcn

The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in promotion practices by the agency that protects the president.

More than 100 black Secret Service agents alleged in the 2000 lawsuit that they were routinely passed over for promotions in favor of less-qualified white agents.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says in a statement released Tuesday night that he is "pleased that we are able to finally put this chapter of Secret Service history behind us."

The Secret Service says that while it "denies any and all liability or damages ... the agreement is a means of resolving this almost 2-decades-old matter."

The Washington Post is reporting that the agency has agreed to pay $24 million to the plaintiffs.
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http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/politics/secret-service-racial-discrimination-case-payment/

The decade-long case highlighted specific instances dating back to 1995 claiming that each of the African-American agents were not selected for specific promotions, assignments, positions and career enhancing opportunities they were qualified for but were given to white agents. Testimonies reveal that the agents each bid for up to 230 positions within the agency before being promoted.

One of the agents explained that she was "passed over for promotion in favor or a white (male) agent who had previously been transferred, as a result of sexually harassing her."

Desmond Hogan, co-lead lawyer representing the agents said that the settlement "means that black Secret Service Agents will not be constrained by the glass ceiling that held back so many so many for so long when it came time to fill the leadership positions at the Secret Service."

The initial lawsuit was filed in 2000 under the administration of former president Bill Clinton.
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"Had the matter gone to trial, it would have required that we re-live things long past, just at a time when the Secret Service is on the mend. Under Joe Clancy's leadership, the Secret Service has turned the corner, and today's settlement is part of that," Johnson said in the statement.

Cathy Milhoan, Communications Director for the Secret Service, explained that "the agreement explicitly states that the U.S. Secret Service denies any and all liability or damages to anyone with respect to the alleged facts or causes of action asserted in the litigation."

The Secret Service admits to "no wrongdoings or institutional bias," according to an email sent to agency employees.
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Even black Secret Service agents can't catch a break.
 
M

Metal B

Member
Frozenprince said:
Passed over for a man who sexually assaulted her.
Can't write it no better.
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Sadly, very often this happens to less-qualified and problematic employees. If you can't fire them, the only way is up. Nobody wants to deal with them and they get into better position, where they hopefully can do less harm. While you don't want to lose the good employees and simply keep them from rising up. Mostly a sign, that your employer is very shortsighted.
 
R

_Ryo_

Member
24 million isn't enough and just because you don't admit to wrong doing doesn't mean there was none.
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
Happens at the lowest levels of society an the highest. Black people are considered unqualified even for protecting & risking their lives for another person. You start to wonder what people actually think black people are able to do right with this type of discrimination happening in so many different areas of society.
 
U

Usobuko

Banned
theignoramus said:
Be quiet, work hard and you'll get ahead though, right?
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Meritocracy and equality are convenient drugs fed to the mass, the circle at the top is only going to get smaller and closer.

Unless you do something disruptive, especially in tech area, that's the station of one's life with an almost impossible to break ceiling.
 
G

Guevara

Member
Maybe this is petty but I think Trump should be assigned 100% POC and women Secret Service agents.

The best, of course.
 
T

theignoramus

Member
There's an indepth Washington Post write up on this. The key points:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-agrees-to-pay-24-million-to-settle-decades-old-race-bias-case-brought-by-black-agents/2017/01/17/b386006e-dd23-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.31982d95fa43

-Obama pushed for this settlement before he left office. Presidents Clinton and Bush passed off the problem to their successor.

-"Some of the evidence discovered in the course of the case portrayed the Secret Service of the 1990s and 2000s as a workplace that tolerated racist jokes and slurs. White supervisors engaged in racist banter — and black agents were warned not to complain about it or they could hurt their careers, according to the plaintiffs."

-"Black agents said they heard bosses use the n-word word to describe black people, including foreign leaders the Secret Service was supposed to be protecting."

-"U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson wrote a scalding 51-page opinion in 2008 that cast the Secret Service as a defiant agency and said the case was marked primarily by the service's recalcitrance. She found the Secret Service had repeatedly stalled, and even destroyed potential evidence that could have helped the black agents' claim."


SS agents referring to African heads of state they were supposed to protect as "niggers" is even more fucked up than the usual American racism, I have to say.....
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
theignoramus said:
-"Some of the evidence discovered in the course of the case portrayed the Secret Service of the 1990s and 2000s as a workplace that tolerated racist jokes and slurs. White supervisors engaged in racist banter — and black agents were warned not to complain about it or they could hurt their careers, according to the plaintiffs."
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I never want to hear another snide word about safe spaces or affirmative action after this shit. Let me call you an ape, laugh about it and you have to sit there and take it lest I crush every career prospect you're interested in. Anyone who participated in a practice like that needs to have their own career nuked from orbit.
 
S

Slayven

Member
theignoramus said:
SS agents referring to African heads of state they were supposed to protect as "niggers" is even more fucked up than the usual American racism, I have to say.....
Click to expand...

I would debate that is is usual American Racism, at least one of the many flavors it comes in
 
T

TalonJH

Member
theignoramus said:
SS agents referring to African heads of state they were supposed to protect as "niggers" is even more fucked up than the usual American racism, I have to say.....
Click to expand...

That seems like pretty normal racism to me. I don't expect a racist to change their opinion of a minority because of their status.
 
R

RumblingRosco

Member
Do we add "serving the President and this country" to the list of things that you cannot do without being discriminated against while being black?
 
E

EstoyBlackWaldo

Member
No matter how distinguished you may be, you still must bow, be happy where you are, else you still a nigger. Views will never change no matter how high up you are or what your status is as a PoC. 24 mil for this isn't enough, they could have had greater opportunities if promoted. Its a shame it got passed over by two administrations to get settled regardless.
 
R

R0ckman

Member
EdibleKnife said:
I never want to hear another snide word about safe spaces or affirmative action after this shit. Let me call you an ape, laugh about it and you have to sit there and take it lest I crush every career prospect you're interested in. Anyone who participated in a practice like that needs to have their own career nuked from orbit.
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And we are suppose to have sympathy for these people if we force them out of impactful positions and they some how end up on the streets? No, thank you. I say the racist should be licking the streets for crumbs.
 
P

Parshias7

Member
Now that President Trump is in office, he is sure to make some serious changes on this front.

Look for the Secret Service to discriminate against far more black agents.
 
V

Viewt

Member
Hollywood Duo said:
Yeah luckily there is no racism anywhere else in the world
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I get what you're saying, but we're not going to get anywhere playing the "well everybody else does it" game. This scenario is an American problem with American perpetrators against American victims. We need to own it if we're ever going to make progress.

America's fucked up, man. We need to accept reality.
 
S

SamuelSupreme

Banned
Ive had this shit happen to me six times in the last year. Ive had the same interviewer chastise me in one interview for thinking outside of the box and the other saying that I was too rigid in my thinking.

All the while the only ones getting promoted to upper management are the white guys who were also performing worse.
 
T

Takuan

Member
2 decades for a payout that amounts to much less than $24K per plaintiff... lord knows what they're left with after fees.
 
R

R0ckman

Member
SamuelSupreme said:
Ive had this shit happen to me six times in the last year. Ive had the same interviewer chastise me in one interview for thinking outside of the box and the other saying that I was too rigid in my thinking.

All the while the only ones getting promoted to upper management are the white guys who were also performing worse.
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Its even more frustrating when you watch them BS through a position they are obviously under qualified for.
 
K

Khoryos

Member
Takuan said:
2 decades for a payout that amounts to much less than $24K per plaintiff... lord knows what they're left with after fees.
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How are you getting that figure? I could be blanking on the details, but all I see is "over 100 (And therefore presumably less than 200) agents", which puts it in six-figure territory.
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
Count Dookkake said:
Why pay black people to take a bullet when you can just shoot them for free?
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If American history is anything to go by, the people who despise black people prefer to see them die in ways that aren't dignified or heroic. Wouldn't want to have to respect them after all so just exclude them from the noble job all together.
 
K

Kaako

Felium Defensor
God damn racism and discrimination is embedded into the very fucking fabric of the "United" States of America.
 
C

Chie Satonaka

Member
Kaako said:
God damn racism and discrimination is embedded into the very fucking fabric of the "United" States of America.
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I mean, yeah.

It's what this country was built on. It's in it's framework, in it's DNA. That's the reason we can't get rid of it. It's American to treat minorities like trash.

And all that is about to get even worse. :D
 
A

Akainu

Member
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says in a statement released Tuesday night that he is "pleased that we are able to finally put this chapter of Secret Service history behind us."
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aka burrow it under the rug so it can continue.
 
K

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Chie Satonaka said:
I mean, yeah.

It's what this country was built on. It's in it's framework, in it's DNA. That's the reason we can't get rid of it. It's American to treat minorities like trash.

And all that is about to get even worse. :D
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I know this all too well from first had experience, sadly.
Fuck being American, let us try to be and do better as human beings. I want US citizens to truly feel/realize that within them, to realize being "American" doesn't mean jack shit. But being an actual human being with empathy/compassion is a billion times more worthwhile/noble/valuable than simply being American. Cuz fuck being American at this point, honestly.
 
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