Today, Metro completed the investigation into an incident at our South Facilities Maintenance building in which a statue depicting of a person of color was found in front of the flagpole. An image of the statue and its surroundings appeared on social media and the news, evoking racist symbolism.
Many employees have shared with Metro’s management that this incident is indicative of a larger, systemic issue of racist language and acts at Metro. Employees have reported that their colleagues are not being held accountable regarding harassment and discrimination.
We want to acknowledge that pain and truth, accept and apologize, and make the required changes to our agency to prevent it from happening again. Transit Facilities Division leadership will now take deliberate action to address the people directly involved.
Metro’s next step as an agency, however, extends far beyond this singular incident. We’re committed to treating the root cause, not just this event as a symptom.
“Our process is to recognize, reconcile, and restore. In response to this incident and the feedback we received, we recognize that we must take action to improve our culture and climate,” said Brent Jones, Metro’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Officer and Assistant General Manager for Strategy and Partnerships. “We’re now going to move quickly to reconcile what the outstanding issues are. Our goal is to restore the relationships with those who have been currently or historically harmed, and restore the workplace to a safe and belonging culture.”
Metro continues to strongly encourage all employees with any reports of protected class discrimination, harassment, or retaliation to contact the Office of EEO, Equity, and Inclusion, even if the reports are older, so that we may address them. In addition to addressing these issues from human resources and legal standpoints, sharing and listening to personal stories and truths are fundamental steps to authentically engage in reconciliation and restorative practice in our journey toward being an anti-racist organization.
Metro is seeking to work with our labor partners in building and strengthening our equity and social justice efforts, and in creating and maintaining a healthy organization that embodies our values – one where all employees feel welcome, included, comfortable, and safe in the workplace.
“This incident has jump-started our commitment to the anti-racist work we started long ago,” said Jones. “It’s not easy work and we recognize the challenges ahead. But it’s important work and we’re diving in.”
I was very disturbed to see the racist statue left in front of a flag pole at Metro. This statue is of a black man in a grass skirt with a yoke around his neck who appears to be screaming. Behind the statue is the rope used to pull the flag up and down in the shape of a noose. Metro’s response is that they’re still investigating. Metro needs to make public who’s guilty of this and what they did about it. When you put something this disgustingly racist in the public view then you have given up your privacy.
Was the only real commitment to King County claiming to be anti-racist was to replace the name of a 19th century US Vice President and bigot, William Rufus DeWayne King and replace that with name of the 20th century human-rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr? This seems to be the case. What do public officials like Dow Constantine and Metro General Manager learn in “higher” education anyway? – To shuck and jive, to obscure the truth, to pretend anti-racism while at the same time allowing it to fester and grow like a cancer. This seems to be the case. By adopting the name of Martin Luther King Jr. who courageously spoke out against the infamous Viet Nam War, who not only was attacked by his enemies, but also spurned by close allies, who understood that racism was very much both an economic reality and labor issue,… King Count was obligated right then and there to lay down the gauntet that racism would not be tolerated in any office, in any division, in any work place, in any aspect of aspect of carrying out King County policy. That needed to be understood unequivocally in 1986. That racism is tolerated so flagrantly in 2020 is an outrage. I stand with these worker demanding “King County Metro do its job! And vigorously not tolerate racism in its work sites.”
I’ve been following the news about Metro management’s shocking failure to deal with a racist work environment for Black, Latino and Chicano workers. The letter in the Seattle Times on Sunday has prompted me to write to this blog. It’s been 51 years since President Johnson launched affirmative action under intense pressure from the civil rights movement. Affirmative action opened the doors, not wide, but somewhat to Blacks and other discriminated-against workers. You would think that 51 years would be enough time for employers to become adept at dealing with instances of bigotry, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination in an integrated workforce. But no, Metro has proved once again that management has just become adept at the old soft shoe/do-nothing/we-feel-your-pain racket instead of out-and-out support for the victims of racist bullying.Without a commitment on management’s part to deal swiftly with harassment on the job, nothing gets resolved and the bullies learn they are safe to strike again. It’s time for Metro management to step up.You are responsible for what is going on. As a taxpayer and a bus rider, I don’t want to for pay well-heeled Metro managers who can’t maintain workplaces free of harassment and discrimination. Enough is enough!
Thank you Gary because not only are you speaking the truth but also as a taxpayer and a transit rider you are exercising your rights to voice your opinion and ask questions. It is one thing when King County metro management ignore the workers who have and still are putting their own and their family’s lives at risk everyday only to be rudely disrespected by Dow and Gannon by them not answering unasked questions.
If they were in the right then we would not have a foot to stand on and yet all we get back in return from the both of these to two so called leaders are lip service if that and very hollow promises.
If you by chance have others that would be so kind as to leave their thoughts as well it would most definitely be appreciated from all the workers who’s tired of working and not getting recognized and or the raises that are deserved.
But funny how they never miss theirs.
Metro is very racist. The staff are known to discard complaints of racial incidents, removing them from files all the while the victims still have their stamped copy from Metro. When you go back to the folder the complaints are gone, there have been several incidents where pictures of guns along with run nig… run. They are quick to push a blk man to the front line to be their pawn. This is really one of the companies that should be investigated. You will see they operate just as bad as the police that kill black people because they work hard at keeping black men and women in their place. Check out their EEO And who and how it have been operating. If someone really want to look and make positive changes, it wouldn’t be hard. Investigate it is all I’m asking. It’s horrible the things that’s still at this time still allowed and they are getting away with it. Just take a REAL LOOK.
Ok…I am hoping everyone is seeing through the comments Ade Franklin made to KING 5. As I recall, they were the typical and well rehearsed words Terry White himself used during his generic reply to the reporters who attended the protest. What’s worse, and again typical, is that these are so-called Black men who are supposed to know better and understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, but instead they have chosen to use their platform as a method of deception. Anyone who knows their true history knows the role that these people are playing to help this BAD BLOOD continue to flow.
Ade and Terry please stick to the subject and stop trying to mislead the masses. Notice you are being put in front of the cameras for a reason (and you know what that reason is). I’ve told many supervisors in the past, just do the right thing and sleep well at night, but from the looks of things the both of you are comfortable doing it the way you are.
I completely agree with the comments above. Things were never great, but have gotten worse under the management of Rob Gannon and tenure of KC Executive Dow Constantine.
I’ve seen coworkers go to EEO hoping to get relief from discrimination only to have their concerns dismissed with no findings.
I’ve also spoken to management about disparity in training only to have it fall on deaf ears. Real blatant stuff. I have no confidence in EEO – its much like the same problem with police internal investigations where misconduct is excused and conflict of interest is the norm. Management has created a toxic environment where racism, sexism, bigotry is allowed – at top levels! So why would management call out their own? They wouldn’t and don’t.
Metro is a public agency run by management who use it as a launching pad for personal high-paid careers. This is creating a demoralized work force where people who speak up are punished or ignored. It is time for real accountability and change. Enough of the platitudes and false promises. The nepotism and good old boy/girl networks need to be dismantled.
This is just more lip service. According to Brent Jones, the EEO’s anti-racist work began “long ago”. How long ago did this work begin, Brent? I know of a Black mechanic who, for the better part of a year, complained IN WRITING about a white coworker’s racially offensive behavior. He reached out to several people, including then-director of Metro’s EEO Anita Whitfield. He got no response from the EEO. At some point during that year his supervisor launched an internal investigation which was conducted by an “independent” investigator (independent, but hired by King County). Not surprisingly, the result of the investigation was “no findings”. In the meantime, his antagonist continued to harass him. After a year of complaining and getting no relief, there came a day his antagonist needled him and it lead to a verbal exchange. During this exchange the white employee used obscenities, the Black employee did not. Shortly after the two men parted ways, the white employee came back and engaged in the same meddlesome behavior that caused the verbal exchange! The Black employee went to another area and vented his frustration to a coworker. Metro followed the Black employee’s path, illegally listened in as he vented his frustration, and pulled him off work the next day. He was off work for a year as Metro twisted the story around and tried to fire HIM! Metro tried every trick in the book to terminate this employee. When the employee mentioned the documented complaints he’d made, management’s response was something along the lines of “we’re not talking about that right now”, as if it wasn’t relevant. This happened last year. So again I ask, how long ago did the anti-racist work begin? Where was the EEO then? Why was this situation allowed to fester for a year? Why was there no action that could be taken against the white employee, but IMMEDIATE action taken against the Black one? If Metro had been successful in its quest to terminate the Black employee, he could have lost everything! How could you have fixed that? This was not an isolated incident or a mistake. Metro’s actions were deliberate.and indicative of the culture here. The handling of this situation (and others like it) sends a clear message to employees. Employees of color learn that there’s a price to pay for speaking out, while white employees learn that they can do whatever they want without fear of consequences.
Since its inception Metro’s EEO has been shrouded in dishonesty. How can this office now expect to restore relationships with those currently and historically harmed? Too much damage has been done. This office needs to be dismantled.
I mentioned before that these are taxpayer dollars, and this is why. These top paid so-called educated problem solvers obviously missed one of the most important parts of their job as an EEOC elite-and that is HISTORY! There is a true saying that if you don’t know your history you are bound to repeat. In order to address the root cause you first need to identify it. King County Metro has done nothing to change it’s racist ways, but Metro and its EEOC use excuses and tax dollars to fund new strategies to keep them in place. This is where taxpayer dollars keep getting misused. Metro, along with its EEOC are guilty of hiring unqualified personnel (i.e. family, friends, hand picked coworkers) to continue their agendas while making over 6 figures of the taxpayers hard earned monies.And yet here at King County Metro they still cannot figure out a diversity plan to make protected classes feel whole. Well, I’ll bet they’re feeling whole and making a lot of money by keeping us all at a disadvantage. We were doing much better without this EEOC, EEOA and whatever else they are wasting federal and taxpayer dollars on to create positions for their families and friends.
The Office of EEO/Equity & Inclusion IS the problem!!! People report incidents of discrimination, only to get no relief. Metro’s EEO reporting process was designed for employee complaints to go nowhere. If you’re serious about treating the root cause of the problem, dismantle this office. There are people in that office who shouldn’t be. In the meantime, stop the phony PR. It’s insulting to those who really know what’s going on around here.