Your paint may be racist
Saturday Night Card Game – What’s a paint company to do to describe [unmentionable color]?
Please make it stop.
First they came for Black List, Baa Baa Black Sheep,Rejigger, Providence Plantations, Black Friday, Gobbledygook, Illegal Immigrant, Undocumented Immigrant, Master Bedroom, Chink in the Armor, and even the use of white copy paper and brown bagging it to lunch.
Politically correct speech has become an Albatross around our necks.
Then they came for the paint, and there were few words left to defend it.
Fired employee sues paint company over racist paint names:
A black man in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, Benjamin Moore Paints, which he says named one of its paint colors after him and then fired him when he complained.
Clinton Tucker, who managed online sales for Benjamin Moore, which is owned by the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, said that he was bothered by the names of several of the company’s paint colors, “Clinton Brown,” “Tucker Chocolate,” and “Confederate Red.”
“Being a black man named Clinton Tucker, the plaintiff found this to be extremely racially offensive,” reads the complaint, filed in Essex County Court.
Retaliation?
Tucker claims that the company’s executive management were aware of his displeasure with the color names, but failed to take his complaints seriously and then terminated — allegedly unlawfully — him in March 2014.
Tucker worked on a project to create a new line of paint colors. One of the shades was given the name “Tucker Chocolate.”
The company already had a color named “Clinton Brown.” A co-worker pointed out the names of the two paint colors, which together contained Tucker’s first and last name, and thought it was funny, according to the lawsuit.
“Tucker found it to be repulsive,” the complaint reads.
“Coupled with ‘Tucker Chocolate,’ it was racially offensive and demeaning to Clinton Tucker.”
Did I say:
PLEASE MAKE IT STOP
(Featured image: Benjamin Moore Clinton Brown color sample)
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Comments
My mother would’ve described that as “Turd Muckledy Dun” or “Somethin’ Your Daddy Picked Out”.
Their radio ad gives the phone number 1-800-BMcolor. I guess that’s the color.
I find the name Clinton to be demeaning.
Doesn’t matter, the paints are over priced and I won’t knowingly buy from a Buffet owned company until he pays ALL his Taxes. And stops trying to raise mine.
I don’t know, I was busy dreaming of a White Christmas.
Maybe we’re headed to that technically sterile world where color pallets like PANTONE assigns them numbers.
But seriously, have you ever wondered just where the hell all those freaking paint color names come from. I mean, how many freaking adjectives are there which you can use to describe a certain shade of one of the primary colors? In English, it has to be a pain in the butt,but imagine languages like Spanish where you have far fewer words.
But a lawsuit? That’s someone who’s too easily butt-hurt or just wants a payday. I suspect the latter. That’s why we need a “loser pays” system.
The description for Clinton Brown: “A childhood favorite treat matures into adult style chic in this perfectly balanced chocolate candy bar brown. Delicious with no added fat or calories.”
There’s also a Tucker Gray and Tucker Orange. Better not even mention Navajo White and Navajo Red.
The Beaver Brown Band was named after a Sears paint color. PETA never complained.
Welcome to America! If you arrived illegally, please step over to the Express Entry Lane. The rest of you, form a queue.
~
The most important thing to know about our American customs is our legal system. I don’t mean the Bill of Rights or the Constitution – dude, that stuff is like a hundred years old. I mean our modern legal system which guarantees you the inalienable (no offense, mmmkay?) right to sue anybody at any time for any reason that may pop into your head, but especially if your precious little feelings are hurt.
~
As an added bonus, if you happen to belong to a Preferred Minority™ (which even includes women, a clear majority here now, so your chances are good!), not only does your grievance gain instant credibility and fast-tracking, but you may also qualify for special extra awards!
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For years I have enjoyed the press releases from losers in lawsuits, that make it sound like the system is off its rocker, merely by leaving out the facts that justify the end result. This sounds like one of them.
Sure enough, there are some important core facts supporting the complaint hidden ‘way down deep in the article:
“The 34 year-old Tucker, who had nine years of work experience in online retail marketing, also says that the company denied him promotions and opportunities for growth while promoting whites.”
THAT is a cognizable complaint. The business about the color names and the jokes, of course, is for the purpose of demonstrating intent.
I did the down-vote inadvertently. I meant to hit reply. Sorry.
Ever since I saw individuals like you pointing this phenomenon out, I began seeing evidence of its tentacles all over the place. (The McD “Hot Coffee” suit was mentioned in the process.) I’d long wondered where this specific style of news story comes from. Now I can’t avoid seeing its influence far and wide… oh well, ignorance wasn’t bliss in this case.
Bill, you left out “niggardly” from the now-banned word list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%22niggardly%22
And then, of course, there is the name Clinton being used by THE White Clintons, the same penniless-pauper-destitute Clintons who make millions BSing people of all color. Their use of the name “Clinton” is a defamation suit waiting in the wings.
How about calling the BM paint selection the exclusive “Cleveland Browns Selection” and leaving Clinton Tucker out of the mix? There is your settelment right there. But then again, no money would change hands, so…
The St. Louis Blues team should be sued by the Smurf community, a definite minority.
Physical reality, sorry Tucker: Black is the absence of all visible light, white is the presence of the complete spectrum.
Put enought of the right pigments into soemthing and it will appear to be black as it absorbs all colors.
Now I put the question to you: Should white “yutes” sue black “yutes” because black “yutes” absorb all colors and do not redistribute them equally? I put that to the jury.
HA! 🙂 Good one!
(R102, G86, B75) or (C52%, M57%, Y64%, K32%). Not to be fiddly or anything.
Happy sigh…LOL… best post
You left off “black hole” from the list. A Dallas City Councilman objected when a 2nd councilman said they were pouring money down a “black hole”. The 1st said, “why you call that a black hole? WHy you don’t call that a white hole?”
Ignorance is our worst enemy.
I must correct you a bit. WILLFUL ignorance is our worst, worst enemy. IIRC, that black judge, whom I believe has Ph.d, AND another black judge refused to move off that absurd position even after the white councilman set them straight about what a “black hole” is.
These people are crippling us with willful ignorance. In fact, I’d go beyond calling it ignorance. It’s willful viciousness toward usage of well established language and terminology for the purposes of control, subjugation and profit via extortion.
PC is the tool of the left to control and silence their opposition. Being the Word Police of the culture is their duty as good little fellow travelers.
Reminds me of The Sound of Silence.
(I personally wanted to know what that newer color, Tucker Chocolate , looks like. OH, it’s more of a gray……. Uhm, are we still allowed to say that color?! No, you say? Who made YOU the PC police?! /sarc ) 🙂
I think he might have a case, at least if I ‘m on the jury. The offending paint names included his names and using them for commercial purposes should require his permission
You’ve got Legal Insurrection blogging for you? Wow!
Oops! Sorry, forget I wrote that. Blog haze. But I do think this is the big time.
I’m guessing that Clinton Tucker is making his accusations of racism because he was rightfully fired for being incompetent or crazy. Going all the way back to public school, in my experience the ones with the loudest accusations of racism are the ones trying to divert attention from their own wrongdoing.