I’ve also been sued before. I have a rule that students can talk or whisper in my class when I’m talking and I won’t trip, but to do so doing a student’s speech is grounds for a drop in grade. I docked a certain violator and admonished him for especially being demonstrative and emphatic with his whispering and gestures while a young lady was speaking. Turns out he was gay. I had no clue, until the department chair notified me of the suit. I remembered the dude was sitting in the hallway at the final speech like he was afraid to go in. I came out and talked to him about not being nervous, encouraged him to go in, and he did great. To think he was suing me for discrimination the whole time I’m pumping him up was a bit hurtful. Lucky for him, this occurred at a university smack in the middle of Los Angeles and even other faculty agreed I could have done without reference to his gestures. Settled

Another time, I actually learned a lesson. I used to be so impressed that I had guys on my construction crew (i’m a small development entrepreneur) that were ass-kickers. While 2/3 of the employees always came 13 minutes late and assumed it was on time, took an hour and 11 minutes for lunch, and left at 4:42 (they would start packing up after a 4:00 smoke break), these guys came early, started on-time, managed their own reasonable breaks, and left at 4:00, opting to not take a lunch, but a break at noon. A brother of one of the guys gathered them and took them to the labor board. Basically, their issue was the lunch and what amounted to overtime. The fact that they were latino and the former group were black/white/other made it an issue for the department of justice because people doing same work were being treated differently. The fact that they were like family to me (and still are) was besides the point. I paid them through the labor board, told the group that in my heart of hearts, it was my ignorance, not intentional discrimination. They agreed not to sue, accepted the overtime pay, and we still work together.

Finally, when another venture I had was going in the dumps in 2009, I needed a specialist in a specific area to give it one last chance at surviving. Due to loss of revenue, I agreed with my employees in a department where its office work mostly to cut 5% from pay for one year to see if we make it. When I hired the new specialist (who was white) the employees FREAKED OUT. Lawsuit. Forcing a mostly black department to accept a pay cut and then hiring a new white employee for a large salary amounted to discrimination. Dismissed.

There are frivolous lawsuits and they have a significant impact on our society and our economy. Most of the time, people don’t make this shit up. If unfounded, I can imagine the hurt it places on Arte and possibly Reagins. But I have learned to hear these things out before commenting. Most people are good people who wish issues like this would just go away. Trust me, I had a lot I would have liked to have said to my own brothers and sisters who sued me about their own motives and ethic. But for every good person out there who is cynical about lawsuits that play cards because they suspect a lack of accountability and unjust gain, there is someone like Baloney here who is constantly trying to promote ideas like the absurdity and humor of black people trying to use big words, which do poison environments. They do create work and business environments where people are minimized and sometimes, unintentionally, discriminated against.

I’m not saying that happened in Dave Smith’s case. I’ve just learned not to trivialize the issue until I hear the facts because no matter who wins we may all learn something from it.