An Alabama man said his rights were violated when he was fired over a Confederate flag on his pickup truck. Phillip Sims said he does not normally drive to work at Turner Industries with the Confederate battle flag flying from his truck, but he said was running late Monday and didn’t have time to remove it, reported WHNT-TV. Sims didn’t explain why he had the flag on his flatbed pickup truck over the weekend, but he said he was glad he refused to remove it — even if it meant losing his job…. “I’m unemployed now but I still feel that I made the right decision,” he said. Sims said his former employer had offered three times to rehire him if he would remove the flag, but he said doing so would violate his First Amendment rights…. “It’s a statement of our heritage and it’s just my right to have it, and I don’t think that I should just give it up because somebody told me I had to,” Sims said.
I love listening to people who have no clue what their rights are and even less about what they mean pontificate about the need to respect their “rights.” Protection of free-speech rights under the 1st Amendment aren’t nearly as broad in the workplace as they are in the outside world. An employer can absolutely place limits on speech for any number of reasons. There’s no 1st Amendment right to display symbols in the workplace that are deemed to be offensive by many. An employer has the right to create and enforce rules in the workplace, and that can mean proscribing what some might deem “free speech.”
You can claim a right from now until Thanksgiving…but that doesn’t legitimize it or mean that said “right” is worthy of respect or even acknowledgment.
Alabama is an “at will” employment state, which means an employer can terminate employment for virtually any reason…or no reason at all. Mr. Sims seems to believe that he has the absolute right to engage in such speech and expression as he deems appropriate, regardless of the rules of his workplace. “I’m unemployed now but I still feel that I made the right decision” is merely another way of saying “I don’t have to respect or follow the rules my employer sets,, because I don’t recognize- nor ami I bound by- those limitations.”
“It’s a statement of our heritage and it’s just my right to have it” is a apropos of nothing. I always thought I had the right to be a goalkeeper in the English Premier League, but no one else seemed to agree with my assessment, and so my soccer career ended when I graduated from college. Rights are generally accepted by society at large and recognized by our legal system- in this case the Constitution. Claiming that your right to free speech and expression is being violated because your employer won’t allow you to display what many deem to be a symbol of racism and hatred doesn’t mean you have a leg to stand on. I may believe I have a right to a winning lottery ticket, but I don’t see a judge recognizing that right any time soon.
And no, it’s not a statement of your heritage…unless you accept the reality that your heritage is a horrible mélange of hatred, racism, and oppression. Claiming what you believe to be your heritage doesn’t translate to having a right to celebrate it in the workplace. Mr. Sims may be positioning himself to claim martyrdom in the service of his “heritage,” but while he can certainly enjoy his 15 minutes of fame, he’s claiming rights that simply don’t exist.
Standing on principle is one thing…but standing up for rights you don’t actually have is a recipe for disappointment…especially as Sims likely won’t be eligible for unemployment. This is what happens when you move in near the intersection of karma and schadenfreude, no?
