Hyley Dibona Fired by Regal Cinemas after controversial tweets

It appears that Hyley Dibona was terminated by Regal Cinemas for controversial tweets she made on June 18th 2015.   Haley made the following 3 tweets:

“If you are a minority and don’t like it, go back that’s what freedom is

Half of minorities might as well as have “you should feel bad for being white” tattooed on their foreheads.

Don’t complain about being a minority and say whites are a problem when your ancestors chose to come here knowing they would be a minority”

People took issue to this post and determined that Hyley worked at Regal Cinemas.  After several people reported it, Regal Cinemas made two statements on their twitter page.   They imply that Hyley would not be employed by Regal Cinemas, but don’t outright say that she was terminated.

The fact that Hyley was responding to a racist comment made against white people has been completely ignored.   You can see her tweeting the comment she saw to the right.   This is what she responded to.

Does this justify what she said?   It certainly does not.   However if you participated in getting Hyley fired but failed to take any action against the person making anti white statements, that would make you a hypocrite.  The case could be made that you base your reaction to what a person says based on their race, would we call that reactionary racism?

In situations like these “Freedom of Speech” is a double edged sword.   Hyley has the freedom to make a highly insensitive comment right after the Charleston SC shooting and likewise people have the “Freedom of Speech” to voice their displeasure to her employer.   Regardless if I agree or disagree with it, that’s the way it works in America in 2015.

Personally, I feel that her remarks are extremely insensitive and misinformed as the nation has just witnessed the Charleston SC tragedy.

Hyleys “Tweets” were no more racist than the tweet she was responding to. Yet for some reason the reaction is one sided. Hyley lost her job, her family has been threatened, and she has been constantly harassed. The person who originally posted the anti white statement has received 0 harassing tweets, 0 threats, and nobody knows if they have a job let alone their name.

Shana Latrice was recently fired from the Brookfield zoo for something very similar.   She posted on her instagram “At work serving these rude ass white people” and was terminated from her position shortly after.   I didn’t come out and call Hyley racist and I’m not going to call Shana racist either.   I think both people made stupid mistakes and said something they shouldn’t of and paid a heavy price for it.    I believe that we often say things we regret when we’re angry, frustrated, or possibly caught up in the great debate.

The two girls above made ill advised comments, however the one to the right is what we personally consider racist.  That’s what happens when people over react and are distracted.   Everyone ended up going after someone that said something ill advised in the heat of the moment rather than the people clearly making racist remarks.

The same thing happened with Shana.   She commented without thinking and was terminated shortly thereafter.   That shows you that both sides do this to each other, where does that hate come from?   It seems that it’s one of the things that really drives people these days, seeing someone fall for some stupid comment they made on social media.

This point of view might sound odd coming from the people that run this website.   We do have a controversial wall of shame.  The difference is we never list a full address, and we don’t support violence against anyone for their right of free speech.   When these firestorms ignite on social media people always receive death threats, they always get fired, and lives always get ruined.

The truth is, it doesn’t matter what side you’re on, if you threaten harm against someone, break the law to intimidate them, or get them fired from their job based on something they said online, it would mean that you are enforcing legal censorship, and in some cases, illegal censorship.   It doesn’t really matter, it’s still censorship.   This is a huge threat to that thing you hear everyone talking about all the time, “Freedom of Speech”.

I don’t understand where people from both sides feel that they need to take it that far when someone says something online they disagree with.   One girl was irate about something she read online, so she posted back without thinking.   The other girl was probably frustrated at her job and made an ill advised post.   They both got fired from their job and they both were harassed.   It seems that social media is extremely talented at making us hate people we know nothing about.