When you have suffered a loss of some kind or of any kind, if the loss was your own doing, then there is very little recourse.
You can complain. You can bad mouth a colleague. You can blame your mistake on someone else. There are many ways to absolve yourself of your personal responsibility for what has befallen you in your life.
There is an old tripartite credo that goes like this: Admit nothing. Deny everything. Blame it all on some else.
Gardy Jean-Francois has done just that.
Instead of accepting the cold, harsh reality that whether or not you are black or white and the mayor gives you a choice of continuing in your job (which she hired you for) or leaving because you are running for public office in Lynn, then it is up to you to make the decision not to run and keep your job or run and lose it.
He chose the latter and the mayor let him go.
She was totally justified in letting Jean-Francois go.
He should have accepted his fate the way he originally accepted his appointment from the mayor.
Instead, he has filed a discrimination case against the mayor with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
The suit on its face is an outrage to the mayor, who clearly, incontestably did not discriminate against Jean-Francois.
To claim, as he has apparently claimed, that he was somehow mistreated because of the color of his skin does not fit the mayor’s persona.
She is many things but she is no racist.
Also, Jean-Francois has said that the suit isn’t just about being discriminated against because he is black.
It is not about race only, he has allegedly said.
Has the mayor singled him out for a different form of discrimination?
We doubt it.
The mayor is not like that.
You have to really get under the mayor’s skin for her to take action of any kind.
And this action letting Jean-Francois go was an action taken on principle and nothing else.
We do not know what Jean-Francois’s work record was. We do not know what his colleagues thought of him and whether or not he did as he was told by the mayor to her satisfaction.
We do know the mayor, however.
She is many things but she is not a racist and now she must appear before the MCAD, the white mayor versus he black assistant whom she released.
“The last place you get any justice is in a court of law. The MCAD is not a court of law.
The mayor will be hard pressed to get any justice before the MCAD
View Comments (3)
I'm not even for Gardy's suit nor his run for public office, but this article was garbage. I love how objective this article was.....NOT!
Did the mayor have to pay you to write this? Here's a motto to live by "swear for no one". Your newpaper can hardly know whether or not someone is a racist. Have you ever heard of covert racism? Stop swearing for people and learn to write an objective article. The MCAD is the only entity that can say whether or not Gardy's discrimination suit is "unfounded or wrong"!
Whether or not you think he is unfounded is really not for you to judge as Lynn; MA and the U.S. overall has an outstanding record of racism and institutionalized racism. Its hard to discern what is what due to the lies that are consistently perpeputated by the Ostrich mentality of white America. You may want to bury your heads in the sand about racism but its constant, obvious and/or covert and it most certainly exists. However, whether or not we agree or have an opinion or not--its his right to file a claim of racism to investigate because the last time I checked the hypocritical credo of the U.S. justice system that we have been indoctrinated to say since toddlers is..."and liberty and justice for all." He can do as he pleases within the letter of the state or federal law to acheive what he perceives and knows is an injustice. So, let the MCAD decide and move on with your rag of a biased Lynn paper.
I helped Judy run for Mayor and and knew Gardy very well. They were great friends and Judy immediately hired Gardy, as she knew he was a great worker....she didn't look at the color of his skin, NOR did she look at the color of his skin when she let him go. Yeah, there is still plenty of racism in this world which really sucks, but racism was defnitely not involved in this matter. I don't know Gardy's work history at all, but I do know that if he was as perverted with his co-workers as he was outside the office, I'm glad he was fired!