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  • 2017-10-09 (xsd:date)
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  • Was a Detroit Firefighter Fired for Bringing a Watermelon to His Station? (en)
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  • Social media erupted with expressions of outrage in early October 2017 after WJBK, a Fox Television affiliate in Detroit, reported that a novice firefighter, 41-year-old Robert Pattison, was fired for bringing a watermelon to the station as a gift for his new co-workers at Engine 55 in the Joy-Southfield neighborhood of Detroit. Although showing up on one's first day with a gift (usually doughnuts) is a firehouse tradition, Second Battallion Chief Shawn McCarty told Fox 2 News, 90 percent of Engine 55's firefighters are black, and some took offense at Pattison's choice of offerings: Certain foods, notably watermelon and fried chicken, acquired racially charged significance when they were used to caricature and dehumanize black Americans during the long period of segregation in the South following the Civil War. As William Black explained in a 2014 article in The Atlantic: Although mixed, social media responses to the announcement of Pattison's termination appeared to sharply favor the sentiment that Detroit officials overreacted by firing him: When asked by Fox 2 News if he thought Pattison, who said his gift was meant as a gesture of good will, deserved to be fired, Battalion Chief McCarty said he didn't think so. Between what he did and losing his job there were a few things that could have been done, McCarty said. However, Detroit Fire Commissioner Eric Jones issued a strongly-worded statement defending the decision: We invited further comment from the Detroit Fire Department, but did not hear back before publication time. We have not been able to reach Robert Pattison. (en)
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