New York State Jewish Woman harassed and shut in room with no lights by man who calls her "F'ing Jew" & 'YOU'RE IN THE GAS CHAMBER'

[Indus]

https://www.newsweek.com/jewish-woman-quits-job-co-worker-gas-chamber-1372740

https://abc7ny.com/5212244/

A former employee of Kingston, New York, a family-owned health food store was arrested on Friday for repeatedly harassing a Jewish co-worker, including an incident where he allegedly shut off the lights and told her "You're in the gas chamber."

William Sullivan was working in the produce department of Mother Earth's Storehouse earlier this month when the alleged anti-semitic verbal attacks began against Sarah Shabanowitz, a Jewish woman, who was working in the same section.

"Last week, on March 11, I was in the cooler getting items to stock on the floor. One of my colleagues, Will Sullivan, was standing outside the cooler. He said to me: 'now we're going to put you in the gas chamber,' and turned off the light," Shabanowitz wrote in a statement issued on Friday. "I was horrified. When he saw my look of shock, he said: 'yeah, you f-ing Jew.'"

The 18-year-old college student reported Sullivan to her manager, but after Sullivan remained at the Kings Mall Court location for the rest of his shift, Shabanowitz didn't "feel safe," she wrote.

The following day, Shabanowitz was moved to another department, but the harassment didn't stop.

"Will then found me and started yelling at me for making him look bad. I reported to management that Will was harassing and retaliating against me for making a complaint. I was so upset that I left work early," she wrote.

Shabanowitz said her store manager turned on her and allegedly admitted to dismissing Sullivan's statements as "a joke" and was told to "either quit your job or do the register."



I would like to say "shocking" but it's not shocking at all.

 

[whm1974]

Both harasser and the manager should be fired.

 

[PJFrylar]

What the fucking fuck..............

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I'm sure William and the supervisor are two "very fine people."

 

[woolfe9998]

Company's apology is pathetic. It's "out of their hands now" because neither the victim nor the alleged perp are working there any more? And the manager who threatened the victim with firing if she continued to speak up about it is still employed?

Lots of people on FB claiming to be regular customers of this store are saying they're now boycotting it. Probably best if they just belly up.

 

[woolfe9998]

She's hired an attorney, meaning she will be suing the store, no doubt. Statement from attorney:

https://www.ecbalaw.com/wp-content/...-Statement-on-Behalf-of-Sarah-Shabanowitz.pdf

 

[whm1974]

Lots of people on FB claiming to be regular customers of this store are saying they're now boycotting it. Probably best if they just belly up.

Yeah allowing this kind shit go on doesn't look good to consumers.

 

[Paratus]

Whoa whoa whoa. Let’s think about this for a second. Gas chambers are just things and things aren’t antisemetic and it wasn’t even a real gas chamber so how could this actually be antisemetic?

Isn’t this really just the PC police having the chilling effect of censoring men in the work place from having a simple conversation about the historical plight of Jews? Besides doesn’t science say women are more sensitive which is why they don’t do as well in the work place? She didn’t even realize it wasn't a gas chamber and he was merely being an ally of Jews by demonstrating how awful it was.



So how did I do guys? Did I hit all the soon to be incoming excuses?

 

[Indus]

Whoa whoa whoa. Let’s think about this for a second. Gas chambers are just things and things aren’t antisemetic and it wasn’t even a real gas chamber so how could this actually be antisemetic?

Isn’t this really just the PC police having the chilling effect of censoring men in the work place from having a simple conversation about the historical plight of Jews? Besides doesn’t science say women are more sensitive which is why they don’t do as well in the work place? She didn’t even realize it wasn't a gas chamber and he was merely being an ally of Jews by demonstrating how awful it was.



So how did I do guys? Did I hit all the soon to be incoming excuses?

Ilhan is still more Anti-Semitic than William Sullivan will ever be.

 

[DrDoug]

Shabanowitz said her store manager turned on her and allegedly admitted to dismissing Sullivan's statements as "a joke"

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the manager and Will are both conservatives. Why? Because this is the kind of cruel shit that makes conservatives laugh.

Conservatives like to laugh at cruelty to others.

 

[woolfe9998]

Whoa whoa whoa. Let’s think about this for a second. Gas chambers are just things and things aren’t antisemetic and it wasn’t even a real gas chamber so how could this actually be antisemetic?

LOL you're actually here to malign my opinion - from another thread - that inanimate objects can't be racist? You're better than this. An inanimate thing can't be anti-semitic. Or racist. Or a whole host of other things we ascribe to human beings. Because...duh. We don't need an intellectual discussion to come to the conclusion that things can't be racist, or that they can't love, or hate, or reason. Because they freaking can't. A person employing or using a thing can of course be anti-semitic, depending on the thing in question and the context. But there is no such thing as anti-semitism without anti-semites.

Right now you remind me of the guy who argued that if we legalized gay marriage, people should be allowed to marry their toasters.

 

[Paratus]

LOL you're actually here to malign my opinion - from another thread - that inanimate objects can't be racist? You're better than this. An inanimate thing can't be anti-semitic. Or racist. Or a whole host of other things we ascribe to human beings. Because...duh. We don't need an intellectual discussion to come to the conclusion that things can't be racist, or that they can't love, or hate, or reason. Because they freaking can't. A person employing or using a thing can of course be anti-semitic, depending on the thing in question and the context. But there is no such thing as anti-semitism without anti-semites.

Right now you remind me of the guy who argued that if we legalized gay marriage, people should be allowed to marry their toasters.

Shit! That was you?

I actually didn’t have you in mind when I wrote this. I’m not implying you are someone who would try and quibble away the antisemitism and harassment here.

The argument that a thing can’t be racist misses the point however. In the other thread about sensors not decting non-white skin colors, for the minority user it’s another example of society making your life just a little more difficult due to something intrinsic about you.

The team who designed the sensors and the team that tested the sensors failed to do their job, likely due to a lack of diversity.

Lack of diversity in technical organizations is an example of structural racism. No one was intending to be racist but the situation ends being racist for the minority user of the product.

Many orgs including mine spent money on innovation and inclusion training to improve performance of diverse teams to avoid situations like that.

So regardless of the fact the sensor isn’t racist, the minority user still suffers due to a lack of diversity.

 

[dawp]

I hope she owns the company in a few years.

 

[woolfe9998]

Shit! That was you?

I actually didn’t have you in mind when I wrote this. I’m not implying you are someone who would try and quibble away the antisemitism and harassment here.

The argument that a thing can’t be racist misses the point however. In the other thread about sensors not decting non-white skin colors, for the minority user it’s another example of society making your life just a little more difficult due to something intrinsic about you.

The team who designed the sensors and the team that tested the sensors failed to do their job, likely due to a lack of diversity.

Lack of diversity in technical organizations is an example of structural racism. No one was intending to be racist but the situation ends being racist for the minority user of the product.

Many orgs including mine spent money on innovation and inclusion training to improve performance of diverse teams to avoid situations like that.

So regardless of the fact the sensor isn’t racist, the minority user still suffers due to a lack of diversity.

I'm not arguing against the notion that one can unintentionally make someone suffer. It happens. It's the terminology that is at issue here. I ordinarily eschew discussions of semantics as lacking substance, but I'm afraid in this case a lot of the substance is in the semantics. That's because the word "racist" is a powerful pejorative in this culture, and because of that it is necessary to use care in applying it to individuals.

Your discussion of "structural racism" makes sense and I suppose the terminology is OK since you're aren't fingering an individual with that formulation. But once you start applying it to specific people, you have to exercise some care. All I'm saying is that it's problematic to apply such a harsh pejorative label to someone who lacks malignant intent or belief. The definition of racism I was responding to was over broad and could ensnare many with no ill will into becoming pariahs.

I'm fully aware that people conceal racism. That has to be judged on a case by case. But no one in good conscience should apply the label to someone whose worst sin is perhaps not knowing something.

 

[HomerJS]

Ilhan is still more Anti-Semitic than William Sullivan will ever be.

Nothing IIlan does is in the same ballpark of incouraging anti semetic and or racist behavior as Donald Trump.

Now maybe this thread can stay on point.

 

[Jaskalas]

Shabanowitz said her store manager turned on her and allegedly admitted to dismissing Sullivan's statements as "a joke"...

Huh, I would have classified this as a he said / she said, but damn if that doesn't look like admission and an excuse. That's pretty sick.

 

[darkswordsman17]

What the fuck.

Hmm, wonder what this store's rating on the MAGA Yelp is.

LOL you're actually here to malign my opinion - from another thread - that inanimate objects can't be racist? You're better than this. An inanimate thing can't be anti-semitic. Or racist. Or a whole host of other things we ascribe to human beings. Because...duh. We don't need an intellectual discussion to come to the conclusion that things can't be racist, or that they can't love, or hate, or reason. Because they freaking can't. A person employing or using a thing can of course be anti-semitic, depending on the thing in question and the context. But there is no such thing as anti-semitism without anti-semites.

Right now you remind me of the guy who argued that if we legalized gay marriage, people should be allowed to marry their toasters.

No he's pointing out the ridiculously stupid manner in which you (and idiots that have made the exact same fucking argument as you have) made your claim because you acted like people don't already understand that the object is racist because of the context and/or its connection with similar situations. Everybody that isn't a moron gets this from the start and this doesn't need to be quibbled. Or its situations like Paratus talked about where there was no intent or context, but obviously there was some inherent bias that led to the discriminatory behavior.

Right now you remind me of a mix of realbrad and the other idiot that keeps referencing his own stupidity about the Pepe meme. You're pointing to your own idiocy (like the Pepe moron), and then trying to keep quibbling about it, when no one was even arguing against that aspect (as seen almost constantly in discussions with realbrad). You're intentionally missing the actual fucking point and then whining when people are pointing to the many flaws in your argument. Hell, not only that, but now you're taking umbrage when I can pretty much guarantee that he wasn't even referencing that other thread. If you weren't so oblivious to how often idiots and racists use the exact same argument you did, you'd probably realize "oh, I'm arguing the same side as them" and think that maybe there might be something off about how you're framing your argument. Nope, just double down on pedantic quibbling that misses the point.