Paint Company Creates Racist-Themed Paint Named After Gay Black Employee, Promptly Fires Him After C

[doxydad]

Clinton Tucker, a former online sales manager for Benjamin Moore Paints in New Jersey, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was terminated for complaining about the names of two colors from the company’s new line of paints: ”Clinton Brown” and ”Tucker Chocolate.”

“Being a black man named Clinton Tucker, the plaintiff found this to be extremely racially offensive” and “when this was mentioned at a meeting with at least eight people including his supervisor, this was met with awkward silence,” the lawsuit reads.

Tucker says that a co-worker initially pointed out the similarities in the names, and thought it was funny.

The company already had a color called “Clinton Brown,” but the introduction of Tucker Chocolate alongside it “was racially offensive and demeaning to Clinton Tucker,” the suit alleges.

In a meeting in which employees were asked about their favorite BM colors, Tucker says he turned to a supervisor and said, “Well, you know my least favorite colors.”

A colleague spoke up, saying, “If you think that’s bad, what about Confederate Red?”


http://aattp.org/paint-company-creates-racist-themed-paint-named-after-gay-black-employee-promptly-fires-him-after-complaint/
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[Skidmore]

1. Benjamin Moore deserves a financial slap.

Other brands are available. Oh, a little very vocal feedback too.

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/contact-us

[WinkyDink]

9. See my post below. NOTHING TO DO with this dope.

[Skidmore]

17. Which "dope?"

Tolerance of bigotry in the workplace is a serious issue for those toward whom it is directed. Apparently he has coworkers who think it is acceptable to mock him, whether or not the paint color was named after him. I have little tolerance for workplace harrassment of this nature. My husband had to deal with blatant bigotry for a period of several years and had his life threatened and endangered because of a boss that looked side when coworkers harrassed him. I'm very proud that he stood his ground and was able to get this addressed higher up the chain. It made a better work environment for others who had been similarly harrassed into silence and were more vulnerable.

[WinkyDink]

20. The THREAD HEADLINE? Does it say "fellow employees were harassing him"? No, it does not.

'the introduction of Tucker Chocolate alongside it “was racially offensive and demeaning to Clinton Tucker,” the suit alleges.'

Does that statement refer to "workplace harassment"? No, it does not. It alleges that this major company chose one employee out of thousands (I'd imagine) to racially profile to the extent of naming a color after him IN ORDER TO harass and embarrass him.

I once entered a nation-wide contest to name new Crayola colors. These decisions aren't made with bias afore-thought. Too much money goes into the result.

So the DOPE is Mr. Clinton Tucker.

[jberryhill]

21. The company did not name the colors after him

I agree that if he was being harassed by his coworkers and management did nothing, that is an issue.

I do not agree that makes it okay to dishonestly claim the colors were "created" and "named after him."

Lies do not help advance the truth.

[merrily]

2. NOTE: Before you read this post any further,

Last edited Mon Jun 30, 2014, 08:08 AM - Edit history (1)

read the thread. As it turns out, you may want to use the info in this post to let BM know you DON"T believe the article, rather than for complaints and a boycott, as I originally suggested.

But, here is the original post anyway, just so you see why WinkyDink replied to me as he or she did.

Benjamin Moore's customer service phone number
customer service: 855-724-6802

company website contact page

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/contact-us

Corporate headquarters (I assume)

Benjamin Moore & Co., 101 Paragon Drive, Montvale NJ 07645.

Local store locator page

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/benjamin-moore-store-locator

You know what you need to do with the above info, right? Especially NJ DUers?

I don't know if I believe that calling you Congressional Rep will do diddly. I do it anyway, just in case, but I don't kid myself. However, I believe that economic boycotts at least have the potential to work, if enough of us are willing to stand up and actually change our buying habits. Go for it.

[WinkyDink]

11. "Especially NJ DUers" will know they had an illustrious GOVERNOR CLINTON, a city named CLINTON, etc

[merrily]

16. Sorry, I am not making the connection?

I meant only that it would be physically easier for New Jersey residents to organize a demonstration in Montvale, NJ than a DUer from, say, Hawaii.

As an aside, Clinton, NJ seems to have been named after New York Governor, DeWitt Clinton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton,_New_Jersey

ETA: Okay, now that I read your reply to the OP, I get your meaning.

[WinkyDink]

18. Re: your aside: That was MY point. Anyone in NJ ought not call or "demonstrate," because the claim

is BOGUS, FOR GOD'S SAKE.

The paint color, by a NEW JERSEY company, might JUST be named after the FAMOUS Governor, not some doofus employee!!!!!!!!

It's a simple "connection."

[merrily]

23. The only point of my aside was that your reply to me sounded like

Clinton had been a NJ Governor.

Get a hold of yourself, okay? I didn't write the OP article and I certainly have no stake in ginning up a boycott against a company that did not do what it is accused of doing.

[WinkyDink]

24. ??? 1. NJ did have a major gov. named "Clinton". 2. Did you read your own post? "You know what you

need to do...Go for it"? Yet now you're trying to say you have no interest in "ginning up a boycott"?

[merrily]

26. No, I have no interest in ginning up a misplaced boycott against anyone.

What exactly would my interest in that be? That I shorted Benjamin Moore yesterday? Again, get a grip.

[merrily]

29. FYI

My post said nothing about Clinton having been Governor of NJ. It said Clinton NJ was named after a governor of NY.

Also FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_New_Jersey

Not to mention, whether or not NJ had a Governor named Clinton has nothing to do with whether I am inexplicably into ginning up economic boycotts for no reason?

[WinkyDink]

3. The guy is, in a word, nuts. First of all, "Clinton" is a historic name in NJ. 2. "Tucker Chocolate"

is named for someone all right, someone ELSE:
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/tuckerchocolate

IRONICALLY for the claimant, St. George Tucker was anti-slavery. Some name (or "plausible deniability" name) for a RACIST paint, eh?

"Hence, it will appear how perfectly irreconcilable a state of slavery is to the principles of a democracy, which form the basis and foundation of our government."[90][91]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George_Tucker

[merrily]

19. Even with that info about another Tucker, I am not sure "Tucker Chocolate" is

appropriate. But, it's not as bad as naming it after an African American employee, that I agree with.

[jberryhill]

22. there are three "Tucker" colors in that line

They are all named Tucker because they are in a line of coordinated colors.

The notion that this company, which makes and names hundreds of colors, went out of its way to name four colors after some employee they didn't like is fairly ridiculous.

[merrily]

25. Yes, I saw your post downthread.

However that was after I replied to WinkyDink's post to me, which cited the egalitarian Tucker as definitely the namesake for the color.

I disagree, though, that it would be ridiculous to think that a company would go out of it's way to do something like the OP article accuses BM of doing. The accusation may be totally of place in this instance but large companies have done worse things that that. So, I disagree that the story was ridiculous on its face.

[jberryhill]

27. Perhaps...

You might reconsider leaving the post with the phone numbers and the suggestion that DUers call to pester them.

Yes, companies can do odd things, like sponsor Habitat for Humanity...

http://www.warrenhabitat.org/sponsors.html

...although I never saw a post on DU applauding them for that.

I guess they sponsor the Warren County Habitat for Humanity merely because they have some employee named Warren they are picking on.

[merrily]

28. I will edit the post, but the statement in my post to you,

as surely you realized, was a lot broader than only Benjamin Moore.

So, what is your point?

BTW, are you going to ask everyone else on this thread who intimated that a boycott against BM was in order, based on the OP article, to edit their posts, too, or only me?

[Historic NY]

30. Yup the Tucker House is brown, in fact its all brown.

if you count the shutters.

http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/do/revolutionary-city/tour-the-city/tucker-house

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/williamsburg-color-collection

[Jamastiene]

4. Note to self:

Never buy Benjamin Moore paints.

[malaise]

5. +1,000

I sent the link to my siblings

[WinkyDink]

8. See my post above.

[malaise]

15. Thanks WinkyDink

[pipoman]

6. Apparently

Neither color line name has anything what so ever to do with this narcissistic person.

[WinkyDink]

7. Thank you. See my post above.

[pipoman]

12. What the hell are you trying to do? Kill this perfectly good outrage party?

[WinkyDink]

14. :-)

[jberryhill]

10. The colors were not "named after" him

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/06/nj_man_sues_benjamin_moore_over_racially_offensive_paint_names.html

"The Williamsburg collection also has colors named tucker orange and tucker gray.

Tucker then learned of the existing color "Clinton Brown," which a co-worker pointed out to him as a joke."

If his coworkers were harassing him, that's a separate issue.

But the person who wrote the headline is dishonestly suggesting that the colors were "created" and "named after" him.

[WinkyDink]

13. The claimant isn't as important as he seems to think!

[Bluenorthwest]

32. That sounds like a whitewash

nt

[Historic NY]

33. Exactly....

meanwhile the "outrage" marchs on..

Wait until they find out Benjamine Moore has favorite blacks.....

http://store.benjaminmoore.com/storefront/shop-by-color/favorite-paint-colors/favorite-blacks/cndShopByColor-courFavoritePaintColors-courFiveFavoriteBlacks-p1.html

[antiquie]

31. Betty Moore was played by an actress.

The shame.