A New York woman lost her job on Sunday after a prominent anti-racist author accused her of telling him and his fiancée to “stay in our ho...
A New York woman lost her job on Sunday after a prominent anti-racist author accused her of telling him and his fiancée to “stay in our hood” during an altercation at a dog park.
Frederick Joseph is the author of the anti-racist book, “The Black Friend: On Being A Better White Person,” and served as a campaign surrogate for Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT), according to his website. Joseph posted a video on Saturday night of an altercation between him and the woman, later identified as Emma Sarley, in a dog park in Brooklyn.
“At the dog park in Brooklyn with my fiancé [sic] and this white woman was threatening to call police and told us to “stay in our hood” because she had our dog confused with another dog who had been barking loudly. So, I started recording and she tried to slap the phone out my hand,” Joseph said on Twitter.
The video begins with Joseph, who is off camera and filming the incident on his phone, confronting Sarley for allegedly telling him and his fiancée to “stay in our hood.” Sarley flips a middle finger at Joseph before attempting to grab the phone out of his hand.
“Oh my God, did you just say that to me?” Sarley says, responding to Joseph’s accusation.
Joseph turns the camera on another man who he says witnessed the interaction before the camera was on. “I’m sorry. You were right here and watched this entire thing. Did she just not stand here and tell us to stay in our hood?” Joseph asks.
“She did,” the man confirmed while Sarley walks away.
After Joseph posted the video on Twitter to his roughly 116,000 followers, some of his followers tracked down the woman and identified her as Sarley. Joseph then used the information to launch a pressure campaign against Bevy, a community events software platform and Sarley’s employer.
“Hey @DerekjAndersen I see that @BevyHQ is attempting to be better about race, equity, etc.,” Joseph tweeted Sunday, tagging Bevy CEO Derek Andersen. “Thought you should see this. I’m hoping Black colleagues and peers don’t have to face this sort of racism from Emma.”
Andersen apparently saw Joseph’s tweet and spoke with him, calling the incident with Sarley “extremely troubling.”
“Spoke with @FredTJoseph about his and his fiancé’s horrific experience from last night. So sorry to them for what has happened. No one should treat people the way we witnessed. This is extremely troubling. I will update you shortly,” Andersen posted Sunday afternoon.
Joseph said after the conversation that he hoped for “accountability” for Sarley’s “racist behavior.” Spoke with @DerekjAndersen briefly, hoping that @BevyHQ leans into accountability and finding ways to make change in light of their employee’s racist behavior,” Joseph said.
Several hours later, Anderson announced that he had fired Sarley over the incident.
“@BevyHQ has zero tolerance for discriminatory behavior of any kind. Yesterday an employee engaged in behavior contrary to our values and has been terminated. We apologize deeply to all involved,” Andersen posted. “I personally hope some type of resolution can happen between the two parties beyond this and will help if I can.”
Joseph later posted another video to Twitter of himself reacting to Andersen’s decision, saying Sarley’s firing was important for establishing “accountability” for racism and bigotry. He also said that he hopes Sarley and others “learn from this” incident. Joseph said:
So, I was just told that Bevy has terminated Emma Sarley after her racist attack against my fiancée and I in the dog park, and while it’s unfortunate that she had to lose her job, I do think that this brings up an important conversation about accountability, especially in a country where black and brown people, marginalized people as a whole have seen so little of it, oftentimes, right, you know, having to bear the burden of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. I think that it’s important that people know that there are consequences for their actions, right? And I don’t think that its up to victims to have to coddle, you know, people who are engaging in abuse.
You know, when I woke up yesterday morning, I didn’t expect to have to be a part of this conversation. I didn’t expect to go to the dog park as a black person and have to receive, you know, racism. So, while it is unfortunate what happened, I hope that Emma learns from this. I hope that other people learn from this who engage in abusive, racist, and destructive behavior because, ultimately, whether Emma lost her job or not doesn’t take away the trauma that my fiancée and I have. It doesn’t take away the feeling of feeling like anything racist can happen anywhere, so I don’t think that people should be coddled, and I do think that consequences are important. So, hopefully this is a learning lesson for everybody.
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