A couple of you asked if I had spoke to the Redneck directly, well, I finally had the opportunity to....Like to hear it? Here it go....

I was called into the head cheese's office by the director of human relations who explained that Mike would like to explain to me why he chooses to wear his Confederate flag belt.

When I entered the room, I was joined by a black man who identified himself as Eddie, Mike's friend. apparently Eddie was there to testify that Mike is not a racist. I thought to myself, "this will be interesting". when Eddie confirmed that he was an aquaintance (sp) of Mike and that he did not feel as though Mike was a racist I said to them that I never accused him of being racist, simply of wearing clothing that has racist connotations.

Mike went on to explain that he had gotten the idea to wear the belt from a Black man who lives in Atlanta who constantly wears a similar belt (buckwild!!) in order to express his beliefs in state's rights. At that point I explained to the group that the reason that the Confederate states were so adament about protecting those state's right was so that they could perpetuate a system of exploitation in the form of slavery so that their economic system could flurish. Hell, it's easy to make money off of products (in particular, crops/agriculture) when you steal land from Native Americans and use slaves for free labor. I also suggested that if he simply wanted to articulate his passion for state's rights, maybe he could think of doing it in a way that wasn't so offensive and loaded.

Eventually, Mike agreed to not wear the belt anymore, however, stated that he takes medication for his short-term memory, so he may forget and wear the belt again.......how convinient.

Before we were excused, the HR director turned to me and said, "see, we do care, and I hope you are happy. We could have just fired you on friday, afterall, Colorado is a no fault state, I'm sure we could have come up with something."

I couldn't believe it, I told her that I didn't appreciate her threat nor did I appreciate the company's attempts to dismiss my complaint on what seemed to be the basis of my skin color (yeah, I know, welcome to the club) by bringing in Gloria and Eddie.

Shit will never stop. Should I be satisfied? afterall, I accomplished my immediate mission, there will be no more wearing of the belt (as long as he remembers his medication -- that one killed me). Yet, it seems as though a larger evil has been exposed. My job was threatened because I was offended by another employee's clothing. Can't help but wonder, would I have been fired if I were Black?
Are there any more steps I can take?
I'm thinking about writing the NAACP, urban league and the Colorado Commission for Civil Rights.
Any thoughts?

"the Pu-tang Clan!?! I loooovveee you guys!" -Hugh Heffner, when he met the RZA at a backstreet boys party