I'm glad you're posting about this. I think I mentioned this a couple of times already in your previous links threads. (Although I think I got the name wrong and referred to him as John Schnatterly.)

The concern I have is that there's an apparent movement among the SJWs to ruin the lives of anyone who ever says the word "nigger" (or its disingenuous variant "nigga") regardless of the context.

If a high school class is reading aloud from "To Kill a Mockingbird," and a white student happens to be reading the portion in which Francis taunts Scout with accusations of "nigger-lover," will the black students now tar this white student as a racist and give themselves license to commit assault on this student after school?

The way things are now, that's probably not an unrealistic scenario.

Don't think so? You thought wrong. Recently, a rap artist named Kendrick Lamar invited a white fan on stage to rap along with him, a song called "M.A.A.D City."

Unfortunately, this white girl had the audacity to perform the song just as he wrote it, including the lyrics "my nigga" three times within eight seconds.

Kendrick put on his best display of indignation. Asking the audience if he should give her another chance. When she almost said it again, he kicked her offstage.

I too am concerned about this. It’s chilling.

I thought that we had to study history or be doomed to repeat it. History is not pretty. It includes racism and racial slurs.

Laura Ingals Wilder is called out because her pa did not think Native Americans were people. Now Papa John is fired because he mentioned that Colonol Sanders called black people the n word.

I would agree with the firing if he had used the n word in a disparaging way, but I don’t see that in this context.

...and here I am getting nervous that this entirely reasonable post might get linked back to me and effect my job. We are becoming very politically correct. We are no longer supposed to treat people equally. We are supposed to give praise and build up traditionally disadvantaged groups. I fear this tactic will backfire.

Jen:

...and here I am getting nervous that this entirely reasonable post might get linked back to me and effect my job.

I'm going to find out where you work and get you fired because you used "effect" when you should have used "affect."

So, there!

Sounds like he might've been set up.

Schnatter, though the founder of the company, may not have been equipped to helm a ship the size to which Papa John's had grown.

His big marketing initiative had been to partner with the NFL. However, with the NFL's ratings dropping and Schnatter's criticism of the league's handling of the national anthem fiasco, sales at Papa John's fell hard.

In addition, Papa John's was behind the innovation curve with Millennials. Domino's, for example, will deliver to any one of several dozen "hot spots" in most cities, allowing people to order a pizza for lunch from the office and pick it up at a nearby street corner. Papa John's has had almost no technology or innovative marketing initiatives on tap under Schnatter's stewardship.

This being a set-up, however, seems a stretch. Even with Schnatter owning 29% of the company's stock, the board could have forced him out without an elaborate set-up. On the other hand, why would a marketing firm ask a client's CEO if he is racist?

SJWs to ruin the lives of people of pallor who ever says the word "nigger" (or its disingenuous variant "nigga")

FIFY.

It would be refreshing if the SJW would drop the passive-aggressive voice and come out and just say we don't like white people.

I'm still suspicious about the setup thing Conan. Schnatter and the board have been at odds for a while. For all the reasons you mention. But Schnatter's face has been a key part of their marketing effort for a long time now. He is an inherent part of their brand. So separating him and the company wasn't that simple. Their marketing firm asking things like this is very odd. And especially how things happened afterwards.

re: set-up , see https://www.adweek.com/agencies/wasserman-ceo-calls-founder-of-papa-johns-extortion-claims-completely-false-in-memo/

Schnatter claims that the agency ( The Laundry Service ) prompted him to state what Sanders had said and then tried to extort money ($6MM) from Papa Johns to 'make it go away'. When PJ's wouldn't pay, they went to Forbes to tattle on him.

Keep in mind that this occurred in a private meeting in the course of a consulting engagement. Shnatter and Papa Johns were entitled to absolute confidentiality concerning what was discussed. Breaching that trust is the kiss of death for any professional agency, regardless of what was ostensibly said.

And then, low and behold, the agency fires most of its employees and announces its 'restructuring' (i.e. closing). It turns out that they were going under when this happened.

TLS still hasn't responded to the allegation but claims it intends to. The fact that they haven't already strongly suggests that there is evidence to back-up Shnatter's claim.

Shnatter and Papa Johns were entitled to absolute confidentiality concerning what was discussed. Breaching that trust is the kiss of death for any professional agency, regardless of what was ostensibly said. ~ bluto at July 27, 2018 7:26 AM

I've worked as a consultant and one of the first things you do before hiring or even meeting with consultants is sign an NDA with them. You're about to tell them proprietary information and don't want them going to your competitors with that information.

If TLS did this, bluto's right, they're finished as a professional agency. If PJ's did not require an NDA before the call, then Schnatter and his management team are incompetent.

We were talking about this at happy hour week or so ago. Yup, several of my friends think he was set up by the agency.

Love your blog, spot on as usual. Seems the new trend of Political correctness and herd mentality now rules the day. Makes me glad I am of the "old School".

So are we now going to have any novels about the past use the term "african american" instead of the way people really spoke? Will we pretend that people in the past were not racist because we can't stand to hear about it? In the case of Laura Ingalls Wilder books, people entirely missed the point: the person who said bad things about Indians was being pointed out as the bad person. The family living on land they weren't supposed be on was part of the plot. Reading comprehension, how does it work?

Patrick said, "If a high school class is reading aloud from "To Kill a Mockingbird," and a white student happens to be reading the portion in which Francis taunts Scout with accusations of "nigger-lover," will the black students now tar this white student as a racist and give themselves license to commit assault on this student after school?"

My little brother Kim played Cecil in the movie "To Kill A Mockingbird." He gets in a fight with Scout in the schoolyard while tauting her that her father is a "nigger-lover". We've wondered if someday someone is going to get angry with him that he used the n-word while acting in a movie. I've seen airings of the film where they cut the audio when he says that. Funny thing is that a couple of years later in a Twilight Zone episode, The Bewitchin' Pool, he worked with Mary Badham again and has another fight with her!

I saw the movie Mandingo on TCM the other night, and it is the most intense movie on the depravity of slavery I've ever seen.

Here's a link to a page with photos of my brother Kim from The Bewitchin' Pool and Mockingbird:

http://mylifeintheshadowofthetwilightzone.blogspot.com/2014/06/episode-spotlight-bewitchin-pool-6191964.html

I had no idea this was the "offense" -- not that he personally used it as a part of his conversation.

Same here. I guess now, even if you're referring to someone else's use of the word, it's nuclear to merely utter it. In another decade, it will become verboten to even say words that rhyme with it, so college students will have to refer to "the t-word warnings" and old geezers will have to say "Roy Rogers and the T-Word."

Anyone recall that SNL sketch with Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor? They sure couldn't do a bit like that today.