Discussion: Southern Poverty Law Center Fires Founder, Says It's Probing 'Internal Climate'

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Inappropriate sexy-time stuff?

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Left, right, in between - itā€™s we men who are the problem. Ainā€™t it obvious by now?

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ā€œbringing in an outside organization to conduct a comprehensive assessment of our internal climate and workplace practicesā€

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This is shocking. We need to know more, although frankly Iā€™m not sure I really want to.

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Although I commend them for following through on their ideals, I am a nosy thingā€¦what did he DO???

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This makes me very sad.

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Iā€™d put good money on a report of sexual harassment, but I suppose weā€™ll find out soon enough.

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I really miss when a scandal was Jimmy Carter admitting heā€™d had lustful thoughts about women who werenā€™t his wife.

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And to whom?

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Iā€™m hoping for embezzlement. (That . . . felt strange)

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Almost certainly a sexual harrassment or inappropriate behavior issue. I canā€™t think of anything else that would evoke this kind of response.

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Thatā€™d be my guess.

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Not in this day and age, no. My first thought was ā€œItā€™s another #metoo moment.ā€ Iā€™m just hoping it wasnā€™t something worse. Not sure what might be worse, but I donā€™t want to go there.

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I say this as a male (age 60) reared as a political activist/progressive in the 1960s/early '70s: itā€™s probably sexual misconduct/harassment (or worse). Thereā€™s a reason a whole generation of young womenā€™s rights activists came out of Sixties movement politics: preciselyā€“and unfortunatelyā€“because those movement politics replicated a nauseating volume of sexist/misogynist behaviors.

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That was four whole years before the Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, and Lily Tomlinā€™s brilliant documentary ā€œ9 to 5ā€ blew the lid off the whole workplace harassment/exploitation thing, soā€¦

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Worse would be ā€œitā€™s been going on for decades and board members/senior staff leaned on victims not to report for fear of ā€˜damaging the causeā€™ā€

Fingers crossed thatā€™s not the case. Maybe @riverstreet right and itā€™s ā€œjustā€ embezzlement.

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Am thinking sexual harassment is a stretch. According to todayā€™s Montgomery Advertiser,

A 1994 Montgomery Advertiser series provided a deep look into the organization controlled by the multimillionaire Dees, illustrating his near-singular control over the organization and its mammoth budget. It revealed a figure seen as heroic by some and single-minded by others who criticized Dees as more focused on raising money than fighting injustice.

The series also alleged discriminatory treatment of black employees within the advocacy group, despite its outward efforts to improve the treatment of minorities in the country. Staffers at the time ā€œaccused Morris Dees, the centerā€™s driving force, of being a racist and black employees have ā€˜felt threatened and banded together.ā€™ā€ The organization denied the accusations raised in the series.

And this may be nothing, but I met and sat next to him at a Chicago fundraiser where he spoke last year. He didnā€™t seem to be all there.

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Yes, this. It is not uncommon for folks in their 80s to experience a loss of inhibition generally, and particularly in areas which corresponds to their early life. I say this from recent experience with my own mother, who before she died last year had begun to display very uncharacteristic behavior which seemed to relate to norms and conditions present in her early life, but which for decades had been moderated. Sad, but unsurprising in the totality of the cognitive decline which can be gradual.

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The Alabama newspapers suggest racial problems in the organization. Ironic, to say the least.

There have also been questions about finances for years. Enthusiastic fundraising when they already have a huge warchest. Dees always claimed he wanted to create a self-sustaining organization.

In any case it is wrong that an 82 year old has had sole financial control of the organization since he founded it in '71. Even good people need oversight to keep them on the right path. Power & money have a corrosive effect, as we see over & over again.

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