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Racist Facebook Posts End in Firings

2 minute read

At least two people have been fired from their jobs over racist comments they made on Facebook went viral.

On September 16, a man named Gerod Roth posted a selfie on Facebook under the pseudonym Geris Hilton of himself with a black toddler, the child of a co-worker. Several people, including Roth, left racist comments on the picture.

“He was feral,” commented Roth.

“Sambo????” commented a user under the name Graham Hansen.

“I didn’t know you were a slave owner,” wrote Emily Irene Red.

The little boy in the picture, Cayden, is the son of a woman named Sydney, who was a coworker of Roth’s at Polaris Marketing Group. Roth has since been fired from Polaris.

Screen grabs of the bigoted free for all eventually went viral under the hashtag #hisnameiscayden, leading to a social media campaign against the racist commenters and the creation of a GoFundMe page to raise a college fund for Cayden. By Thursday Oct. 1, according to Atlanta Black Star, Emily Irene Red had been fired. On Friday, October 2, the president of Polaris Marketing Group posted on Facebook that he was “disgusted” by the racist comments. “PMG has terminated the employee responsible and will ensure that none of the businesses that we associate with will ever do business with him again,” he wrote.

[Atlanta Black Star]

This Is What Your Facebook Profile Looked Like Over the Last 11 Years

The Original Facebook Group Page, 2004.
The Original Facebook Group Page, 2004. Before people realized how awesome pictures are.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2005.
Facebook Profile Page, 2005. Back when Facebook looked a little bit like MySpace. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page Facelift, 2005.
Facebook Profile Page Facelift, 2005. The "the" is finally dropped.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2006.
Facebook Profile Page, 2006. You no longer need to be reminded "this is you" at the top of your profile page.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2007.
Facebook Profile Page, 2007. Every profile update still had to begin with "is," forcing you to talk about yourself in the third person. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2008.
Facebook Profile Page, 2008. The wall. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2009.
Facebook Profile Page, 2009. It only took five years for Facebook to create easy-to-find privacy settings. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2010.
Facebook Profile Page, 2010. Facebook starts to get pretty. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2011.
Facebook Profile Page, 2011. Zuckerberg realizes that people love pictures, usually of animals.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2012.
Facebook Profile Page, 2012. The timeline allows you (or your parents) to trace your life from birth to death.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2013-2014.
Facebook Profile Page, 2013-2014. Facebook introduced a new app, Paper, on Monday.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2014-2015. Facebook updated both the newsfeed algorithm and the privacy settings.
Facebook Profile Page, 2014-2015. Facebook updated both the newsfeed algorithm and the privacy settings.Courtesy of Alex Fitzpatrick/Facebook

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