Andrea Gordon Files Lawsuit Against Boston Transit Authority After Finding Gorilla, Well Dressed-Black Man Action Figures on Co-Worker's Desk

Gorilla, well dressed black man found on desk at Boston's MBTA office
(Andrea Gordon)

Andrea Gordon, a supervisor at Boston's MBTA, said she walked into a district office in Brookline last month and got the shock of her life. She discovered a toy truck with plastic action figures of a gorilla and a well-dressed black man in sunglasses sitting together. I guess racism is alive and well in the transit agency. Ms. Gordon took a picture of this horrific display with her cellphone camera and reported the discovery to her supervisors. She filed a complaint against the agency, saying that it was a direct violation of one of the MBTA's own rules. She has claimed that racism is a systematic problem in the transit agency and I am sure this is not the public relations nightmare they expected or even wanted.

"It brought tears to my eyes. I was embarrassed, I was angry," Gordon said. "I couldn't believe that something that racially disturbing would be sitting on a desk that upwards of 300 people could walk into at any time."

Attorney Michelle Carnevale helped Gordon file the complaint against the agency."At a minimum, the person who had this on her desk should have been disciplined, at a minimum, taken off the payroll for some amount of time," Carnevale said. "But nothing has happened. Nothing."

They're not optimistic that anything will happen given the MBTA's history of civil rights complaints. Discrimination against its own employees has already cost the agency and taxpayers millions of dollars. "I think it's going to get swept under the rug like everything else does," Carnevale said. Source: WCVB-TV

The MBTA isn't the only government entity that has a history of civil rights complaints and sadly, it won't be the last. There are too many racist people in our midst. The agency's policy states: "The following are examples of conduct that may constitute prohibited discrimination: Ethnic, racial, religious, age, sexual orientation or gender based slurs, jokes caricatures, cartoons or graffiti." I wish the coward who put the action figures on the desk would have been adult enough to stand behind his or her convictions and not hide. In other words, blacks didn't run from fighting for civil rights, in the face of unspeakable violence, so too should the punk who did this, not act in darkness.

Rusty DePass, GOP Activist says Escaped Gorilla from Riverbanks Zoo, was "Ancestor" of First Lady Michelle Obama

More right wing hate mongering and name calling. According to WIS-TV, A state Republican activist has admitted to and apologized for calling a gorilla that escaped from the Riverbanks Zoo Friday, an ancestor of First Lady Michelle Obama. former state Senate candidate Rusty DePass responded with a comment to an image posted by an aide to state Attorney General Henry McMaster on Facebook describing Friday morning's gorilla escape at Columbia's Riverbanks Zoo. He commented "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless."

Of course, when confronted, DePass said that he was sorry if he offended anyone, but the comments were made in jest. Really? How would he like for to be called a gorilla? You may not like Michelle Obama, but she deserves the same respect as all the other first ladies in our country's history. Then he had to take a low blow, based totally on a lie. He also said that "the comments were hers, not mine," saying Mrs. Obama made statements in the media recently to the media in which she stated "we are all descendants of apes." Of course, no one can find these comments anywhere. This should come as no surprise to anyone that the right wing will stop at nothing to smear President Obama and his wife.