The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is weighing whether it is “racist” to wear the Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag logo in the workplace.
A case was filed with the EEOC after a black employee at a federal agency complained that the presence of the Gadsden flag logo on a fellow employee’s hat equaled racial harassment. “The complainant said he found the cap racially offensive to African Americans because the flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, whom he described as a ‘slave trader & owner of slaves.'”
According to the Daily Mail, the complainant said he went to superiors about the hat more than once, but nothing was done, so the complaint has now been lodged with the EEOC.
The Washington Post reports that the complainant wants the Gadsden flag treated like the Confederate flag and barred from the workplace. “The EEOC has already ruled that coworkers’ wearing Confederate flag T-shirts can be punishable harassment; and, unsurprisingly, this is extending to other political speech as well.”
The complainant maintains that the Gadsden flag, an American Revolutionary flag designed in 1775, is a “historical indicator of white resentment against blacks stemming largely from the Tea Party.” He suggests precedent for action against the flag can be found by looking at how “the Vice President of the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters cited the Gadsden Flag as the equivalent of the Confederate Battle Flag when he successfully had it removed from a New Haven, Connecticut fire department flagpole.”
To date, the EEOC has issued no decision, but it is looking at the “specific context in which (the co-worker) displayed the symbol in the workplace.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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