White African-American sues for discrimination

[Donut Aficionado]

White African-American sues for discrimination

By Joe Kelley, Host of the KRMG Morning News @ May 12, 2009 7:15 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) -- A former student claims in a lawsuit that the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey discriminated against him for the way he described his background in classroom discussions on cultural diversity.
Paulo Serodio said that in 2006, he told a professor and classmates that he was ``white, African, American,'' which he says accurately reflects the fact that he was born in Mozambique but later became a U.S. citizen.
He said some classmates and staff members at New Jersey Medical School found it offensive that a Caucasian man would call himself ``African-American'' and that the fallout led to harassment and eventually his suspension from the school.
Serodio, who lives in Newark, said some school employees and students told him not to describe himself as ``African-American.'' In the aftermath of his comments, Serodio said, flyers were hung around the school mocking him, he was assaulted and his car was vandalized.
His lawyer, Gregg Zeff, said Serodio eventually was suspended for ``conduct unbecoming'' a student.
The suspension came directly from his remarks in class, Zeff said.
Serodio filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark on Monday. He is seeking damages from the university and several faculty members and administrators.
University spokesman Jeffrey Tolvin said he could not comment because the university had not seen the lawsuit.


No kidding..... I also just found out tha John Kerry's Wife is also from Mozambique, so she is also white-african American.

[chewy]

Good for him!

[pgg]

Good, I hope he wins

[CTR man]

+1 I guess the liberals at the school forgot that South Africa was largely settled by the British. Thus making it possible to be a White and and African.

[chewy]

No, not so much that as every black american now considers themselves african-american when in all possiblity they aren't all from africa. There was a prominant african american studies professor from harvard or someplace that had that dna study done and found out he was, in fact, from ancesters from the middle east and not africa. I'm all for being proud of your heritage but all in all you should be more proud of actually being American than anything-american!

[CTR man]

No, not so much that as every black american now considers themselves african-american when in all possiblity they aren't all from africa. There was a prominant african american studies professor from harvard or someplace that had that dna study done and found out he was, in fact, from ancestors from the middle east and not africa. I'm all for being proud of your heritage but all in all you should be more proud of actually being American than anything-american!

Exactly!!!

[Morris]

A friend of our is from Mozambique and his ethnic heritage is Indian & Arabic. Yet he is truly an African-American. He has been mocked for that in his liberal workplace.

[Buttercup]

I hope he wins. It is absolutely ridiculous for anyone - particularly those who have been no closer to Africa than a map on a classroom wall - to be offended by that. When did black people stake the sole claim on the term "African-American?"


I hate this kind of crap.

[Five-0]

I'm all for being proud of your heritage but all in all you should be more proud of actually being American than anything-american!

Someone has already beat you to this idea Chewy. Don't feel to bad, he was a hardass.

There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else.
Theodore Roosevelt

We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.
Theodore Roosevelt

[Twan007]

OMG I hope he wins... bout time that something the idiots who created "politically correctness" made up bit them in the ass...

and I hope that the ACLU fights for his minority rights just as strongly as they would for any "African-American"

[Donut Aficionado]

I almost got jumped at work right after the election. One of my co-workers was telling everybody how proud he was to be an African-American, so I asked him, what part of Africa? He asked me what I meant by that, I told him that I had been to Africa twice and was just wondering if he was from Somolia, Kenya or Djibouti. He thought Djibouti (pronounced dJa-booty) was some sort of reference to large backsides of black women. I had to show him map of Africa. Its on the northern border of Somalia.......

[Hannibal]

Seriously, if we want to stop people from being racists, we need to quit labelling one another by ethnicity.

[121Traffic]

I hope he wins. It is absolutely ridiculous for anyone - particularly those who have been no closer to Africa than a map on a classroom wall - to be offended by that. When did black people stake the sole claim on the term "African-American?"


I hate this kind of crap.

Amen. On the other side of that argument, what do you call black Englishmen? Or black Germans? Hell, I've met a black Australian and a black Spaniard too.

Idiots.

[mack]

I have a good friend who was born in Africa when his father was stationed there in the military. He said he was African-American and a black female officer got offended and filed a complaint of harrassment against him. He won! Complaint investigated and dropped. He was advised to keep the comments to himself in the future to avoid any further problems.

[Donut Aficionado]

I have a good friend who was born in Africa when his father was stationed there in the military. He said he was African-American and a black female officer got offended and filed a complaint of harrassment against him. He won! Complaint investigated and dropped. He was advised to keep the comments to himself in the future to avoid any further problems.

My problem with that is that any other than white person can refer to thier heritage, but a white person is required to keep it under wraps to prevent problems. I wonder what would happen if there were to be rules imposed on referring to heritage in the work place?

[Five-0]

I finally found this Roosevelt quote. Hit the nail on the head better than the other two.

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.
But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.
The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.
Addressing the Knights of Columbus in New York City
12 October 1915

[gopherpuckfan]

My best friend is Egyptian with dual citizenship. He calls himself African-American for shits and giggles on job and loan applications.

[Twan007]

Seriously, if we want to stop people from being racists, we need to quit labelling one another by ethnicity.

that is my whole point - while you can remain influenced by your heritage (i.e. Italian festivals, Kwanzaa, Cinco de Mayo) be an American FIRST...

while I see that there is a need for certain labels

how are you gonna describe a suspect you're looking for if you can't use certain aspects of their physical appearance - (an example of how the description would go) a person, who appeared male, wearing a baseball hat, long jeans that appeared the color blue, short hair, and a white ribbed T-shirt -

doesn't tell me squat - was he white, black, purple - in order to not offend the trans-sexuals you can't refer to him as a male - can't forget to leave the type of baseball hat out - don't wanna imply any gang relations - and God forbid you describe the shirt as a "wife-beater"

but if I say "a w/m, Yankee's blue baseball cap, blue jeans, and a wife-beater" you've got the picture in a lot less time...

colors of skin are colors of skin - they don't represent a socio-economic standing, an education level, a temperment, or anything else that defines a person - they are just that - the color of skin that God blessed you with - each color of us has it's own problems, trials, and tribulations - some are more challenging than others, but that which defines a person is his/her ability to overcome those struggles and succeed - and that should be how we define ourselves... not by a general hyphinated word that lumps us with all others that it describes

because by identifying myself with a large group - I will be initially viewed by people who don't know me as either the best, or the worst of that group

and I AM MY OWN PERSON... an American

[Captain America]

I almost got jumped at work right after the election. One of my co-workers was telling everybody how proud he was to be an African-American, so I asked him, what part of Africa? He asked me what I meant by that, I told him that I had been to Africa twice and was just wondering if he was from Somolia, Kenya or Djibouti. He thought Djibouti (pronounced dJa-booty) was some sort of reference to large backsides of black women. I had to show him map of Africa. Its on the northern border of Somalia.......

, I too have brought up the point that I have actually been to the African continent having visited Mombassa , Kenya when I was in the Navy. I've been to the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I didn't see any lowriders, gansta rappers or gangbangers during my extremely enjoyable visit.........

[lewisipso]

Hello. I'm lewisipso. I'm from America.