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A moral question- Should I do work for someone that has ties to the kkk? The easy answer is "no", but I need work.

onthefire 7 Apr 17
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29 comments

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10

How did you score a job in the White House?

7

Take the work if you need it but spit in the coffee pot every morning.

6

You can't eat principles. They also do not help keep the electricity from
being cut off.
I am all about personal integrity, but I also am all about being practical.

4

Police department?

3

So he's (she's) a racist. Would it be better to work for a sexist? Or Baptist!!? I doubt you will find a morally perfect employer.

2

Take it until you can't take it.

cava Level 7 Apr 18, 2019
2

If I were you, I'd say yes so long as the work is unrelated to any direct promotion or operation of the Klan.

2

It depends on what your work is - if it somehow makes you tied to their organization? Then "No!".

They wouldn't be the people I'd want to work with - but might I have somewhere? Sure. Without knowing about it.

Now knowing they are part of the KKK - what part of your work has changed that makes it morally repugnant? (I mean is it?).

Is there something about your association through the work - or the nature of your work - that is going to make you feel you've somehow agreed with their morals by working for them?

And as others have said - "Can you live with the decision?".

For example: I worked in Mental Health - if I'd worked with a KKK member - I wouldn't have felt badly about it - it would have been part of my job. It would not have bee me agreeing that it was okay to be in the KKK.
But if you were a Party Planner who was organizing a March on Washington complete with KKK Banners ffor their members? That would be morally bankrupt and selling out your own values.
See the difference?

2

The person will like you if you do good work. Maybe that will lead to the person considering your side to things.

MrDMC Level 7 Apr 17, 2019
2

I wouldn't, but then I have no idea of your finacial situation, or if you already have trouble looking yourself in the eye in the mirror everyday.

1of5 Level 8 Apr 17, 2019
1

What would worry me is if he expected you to join in the group. Definitely tread carefully my friend

1

I love my planet and becoming more of an environmentalist every day.. and I make fucking cars for a living. Drives me nuts. ( no pun intended. lol ). But working for a known kkk sympathizer would definitely give me pause. Worked for a convicted armed robber once..roofing.. needed the $.. quit when I witnessed how he treated his SO. Dunno man.. tough call if it means no food on the table or no roof over your head.but if it's not THAT dire.. I probably wouldn't. Ultra racists just aren't very nice people.. period. I would probably say something and get fired anyway. haha

1

I hear you man, and sometimes you do what you have to do. I remember one time when I was underemployed and really desperate to find a job with benefits and better pay before I got too old to get another job in the college town labor market I was living in. I was really faced with a dilemma of having to get another job soon that was better or else settle for looking in a different city without a college town labor pool and commuting to work down there for work.

I saw an ad for a small family business that produced a medical product for horses that provided benefits and better pay. I answered the ad and interviewed for it. I found out the catch was that everybody there, including the owners who also ran the place, were all Bible thumpers, who would even pray together when they ate lunch as a group together each workday. NFW could I stand working in that social environment, so I wrote the person who interviewed me an apologetic letter turning her down on the job and saying why. I also called after mailing the letter and told her on the phone that I was bowing out of the process and that she would be getting a letter explaining it. What's funny is that after she got the letter, she actually called me, somewhat defensive, and instead of thanking me for being honest about being Agnostic and not wasting their time further, she said that they would have found me out on my lack of religion really soon anyway and that I was being somewhat dishonest to have applied there in the first place. WTF? I told her that nothing in the ad said their business was a Christian business and how am I as a non-believer supposed to know which businesses are " Christian" and which are not? I told her maybe they need to put that in their job ads, but that if they did they could maybe get sued for religious discrimination. This was over 15 years ago.

Sometimes you have to draw the line about who you can stand to work with when their values are so different than your own, but one thing I know is that it would be very difficult to fake it and pretend to fit in when the people you work with are racists or Bible thumpers.

1

That's a hard one. You are damed if you do and damed if you don't. Will you sleep ok if you take it, and will you be able to live if you don't?

1

Is their personal life/belief any of your business, any more than yours are any of theirs?
Would you be in Any way helping the KKK?
If no to both of the above, take the job.

1

It's not my decision, or the decision of anyone here. Only you can decide.

1

Take the job...If it becomes too big of a hassle, use it as a stepping stone to your next job. Perhaps as a side benefit to the rest of the world, this person could learn something from you. Worked with Klan members myself in the past. It was weird, but I hope I may have softened their views and brought them over to civility and reason. These people exist and need to eat too. We’re better off to engage with them rather than ostracize them, possibly making them worse.

1

I would not willingly or knowingly work for a person or organization whose purpose or even sideline was in direct opposition to my own beliefs. There are other places of employment, but if you were to work for someone that racist, would you not feel that you were compromising yourself? It would also possibly be an issue as a reference - people do not hold in esteem someone who is blatantly racist and discriminatory.

1

You know the answer and that doing so will compromise your morals. You're the one who is going to have to live with it for the rest of your life.

1

What kind of work do you do?

0

Everyone has ties to something. You don’t need to get involved and if you do get out. You’ll be no worse than you are now!

0

For want of a better phrase 'Needs must as the devil drives', just be careful 🙂

0

What are the ties and what is the work? It could be an opportunity to represent your superiority as opposed to someone else they might work with that aligns more closely with their beliefs. It's not good when people like that don't interact positively with outsiders. Or mabey you would do your job and they'd never know anyway. Depends.

MsAl Level 8 Apr 20, 2019
0

Depends on what it is. If you're helping them discriminate or harm others then no. If it's just a regular job then get that money. I don't know your situation though. It would be arrogant for me to tell you not to take a job if you are in danger of losing your house or not feeding your family or whatever your situation might be. I'm not paying your bills and neither is anyone else here.

0

This poses some questions. Is he an admitted racist? Are you black? In any given situation one never knows who they work for. It's a job and your purpose is to pay your bills and provide for your family if you have one. Plain and simple.

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