December 21, 2019

"Nike allegedly fostered a 'boys-club "jock mentality"' work culture that was hostile to people who do not fit gender stereotypes..."

"... which the complaint said is contrary to the progressive reputation the sporting goods company enjoys with the public. In its 'Be True' campaign, Nike hired transgender athletes to promote athletic wear like hoodies and sneakers. The suit alleged that placing the burden on Lyles to educate colleagues about gender identity caused tension between the engineer and coworkers, who allegedly called Lyles 'stupid' and 'unstable.' One colleague allegedly said, 'I know I'm not supposed to call you "she-male."' Another coworker allegedly chose not to interact with the plaintiff. Still another colleague allegedly said she would not use Lyles' gender pronouns for religious reasons. Despite reporting these and separate incidents to Nike and Mainz Brady, neither took action nor conducted an investigation into the matter, according to the suit...."

From "Transgender worker suing Nike for $1.1 million cites pronoun abuses" (NBC News). It sounds as though the lawsuit is based on a lot more than "pronoun abuses." Who wrote that headline?

The plaintiff is "against computer engineer Jazz Lyles, who identifies as transmasculine and prefers the pronouns they/them/their." Mainz Brady Group is "a staffing firm that hired workers for Nike."

Here's the face Nike presents to us, the customers, in that "Be True" campaign:

69 comments:

mockturtle said...

In its 'Be True' campaign, Nike hired transgender athletes to promote athletic wear like hoodies and sneakers.

LOL! If anything is the antithesis of being true, it's transgenderism.

rcocean said...

So after the liberal white females triumph in their Transgender campaign against INTOLERANCE, what is the next sexual oppressed minority they need to rescue? Polygamists?

World war T, seems pretty much won. What's the next fight?

chickelit said...

Νίκη was the Greek goddess of victory.

ειρωνεία

Phil 314 said...

What is the size of the market for Transgender sport wear?

Tom said...

I blame the Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists - TERFs.

rcocean said...

LBQGT needs another letter. I suggest "A" for those who think Adulterers are getting a bad rap and are "oppressed".

Next up LBQGTA

Phil 314 said...

Ummm, I don't think so

rcocean said...

ITs not about selling sports gear to transgenders. Its about selling sports gear to middle class white women.

Birkel said...

Juries in shit parts of the country will give away OPM.
Federal courts will find the First Amendment violations unconstitutional.

Next.

rcocean said...

NIKE gets rich off the backs of poor people in the 3rd world, that is pays a pittance. That should be more important then whether the "Boys" at NIKE are "Sexist". But first things first.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“In its 'Be True' campaign, Nike hired transgender athletes to promote athletic wear like hoodies and sneakers.”

Think about that for a second. For the ad to signal the necessary virtue the “transgender athletes” would have to be recognizably not of the sex they’re pretending to be. For the ad to signal the necessary virtue, you consciously and deliberately have to use the “transgender athletes” as a freak show. Sick shit engendering more sick shit. Not surprising.

AllenS said...

I made it to the 39 second mark, and was disappointed in myself for even watching any of it.

Lucien said...

I like to think that as originally envisioned, civil rights laws did not punish wrongthink: as long as an employer did not actually discriminate against someone on prohibited grounds, it didn't matter what their personal beliefs were. Now the development of harassment law has, over time, perverted the concept of a hostile work environment, so that an employer who scrupulously and punctiliously complies with all legal requirements might be sued for expressing a personal opinion in their private life.
"Safety" has been similarly perverted, so that we recently had the spectacle of students at some private college in Cambridge, MA (not MIT) claiming that they didn't feel "safe" because someone associated with their dormitory was a member of Harvey Weinstein's defense team.
As much as Nike's travails fill me with schadenfreude, I find them objectionable because they advance the perversion of anti-discrimination law.

JaimeRoberto said...

I can't wait for the Democrats to sponsor the Violence against Pronouns Act.

Automatic_Wing said...

A tranny unstable? Perish the thought!

Carol said...

Jazz Lyles IS the plaintiff.. the "discrimination" was against him.

At least that's how I read it.

Curious George said...

Pronoun solution.

He.
She.
It.

Howard said...

Changing social norms is always frought with growing pains. It's retarded to get worked up about it.

rhhardin said...

NIKE gets rich off the backs of poor people in the 3rd world, that is pays a pittance.

It's a better deal for those poor people than their second-best choice.

Jeff Brokaw said...


"Nike allegedly fostered a 'boys-club "jock mentality"' work culture that was hostile to people who do not fit gender stereotypes..."

You know what other types of culture are hostile to people who do not fit gender stereotypes?

All of them throughout human history.

Huh. Why do you suppose that is?

pacwest said...

Sooner or later people will realize the eat me last strategy doesn't work.

rcocean said...

"It's a better deal for those poor people than their second-best choice."

NIKE produces its shoes in the 3rd world because its cheaper. Given the minimum wage in the USA is $10-15/hour, they could easily pay 3rd world workers $5/hour instead of $1/hour. They don't - because NIKE is full of Greed heads.

Ken B said...

Cites is not based on. The headline is fine.

rcocean said...

NIKE real reason for making shoes in Indonesia: Profit, $$$, wonderful Money!

NIKE PR Reason: We are helping people in the 3rd World. Its our form of charity.

Anonymous said...

Mainz Brady Group is "a staffing firm that hired workers for Nike."

not sure how they fit here. MBG is an IT staffing firm. There are three basic models of staffing firms

1. contract employees. you work for a MBG, they send you to Nike, but your check comes from MBG

2. Recruiting placement. MBG finds you, Nike does a second interview, Nike hires you, Nike pays MBG a fee. normally, so many months of your salary.

3. Temp to hire. in between. MBG hires you, puts you at NIKE, with the understanding, that if NIKE likes you a fee is paid, and you get a Nike job.

The Nike jobs I saw, Beaverton Ore, look like recruiting placement, in which case, I don't understand the liability for MBG. its not as though they have control of the workplace or have deep pockets.

I do enjoy a certain satisfaction that an ultra woke company like Nike get devoured by the Left.

mccullough said...

They should push for $10 million.

Bo Knows Woke Companies.

Tommy Duncan said...

I wish this crap would die in darkness.

Show up on time, do your job well, take showers and wash your clothes regularly and stay out of my face. I'll do the same for you. If we don't agree on issues let's just avoid each other. How frickin' hard is that?

tds said...

Looks like 'they' is complaining that job 'they' accepted to do, i.e. to change the Nike's culture, was too hard. I'm not sure then about the validity of basis for the compensation demand.

Michael K said...

Howard said...
Changing social norms is always frought with growing pains. It's retarded to get worked up about it.


How we know Howard does not have any teenaged daughters,

Automatic_Wing said...

I would bet that the workers at Nike are among the wokest human beings that ever lived, and were totally supportive of trans-mania until they had to deal with it in person.

Lucid-Ideas said...

@rcocean

Pedophilia. That is not joke. Watch.

gilbar said...

Jazz Lyles, who identifies as transmasculine and prefers the pronouns they/them/their"

hmmm
i was fishing in idaho a few years back, and staying at a fishing lodge where i met the US Ambassador to Luxembourg and his wife.
She was talking about how the State department sent her to classes, so she could learn to act the correct way. How to eat, how to sit, how to talk
Among the things she learned, was correct terms of address.

She said that when she got home,
her sisters asked what was the correct term of address they should use with her husband?
And she said; "Bobby", or Mister Ambassador, or The Honorable Ambassador Mandell...

Then, they said; "what's the proper way for us to address you, Julie?
And she said: Your Royal Fucking Highness"

When she told us this, we all laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed
And we spent the rest of our time there referring to her as "Your Royal Fucking Highness"

But, you know what? SHE meant it as a joke, as wouldn't have minded What we referred to her as

That's what Jazzy needs to realize. The pronouns they want us to use, aren't nothing but jokes


ps. Robert and Julie? In the incredibly unlikely event that either of you happen to read this; Brian (and Steve and Marti) say Hi! it was great fun meeting the two of you :)

Mark said...

How dare those co-workers speak the truth that the emperor is naked. They should have been fired and ostracized from all civil society.

Mark said...

In its 'Be True' campaign, Nike hired transgender athletes to promote athletic wear like hoodies and sneakers.

In its 'Be True' campaign, Nike hired transgender athletes to promote the lie that a man can be a woman and vice versa.

Mary Beth said...

One colleague allegedly said, 'I know I'm not supposed to call you "she-male."'

Context? I can see that being a kind of smart ass answer to the question, what do you know about how to treat transgender people? It's completely different if it's an answer to a question or if it just came out of the blue. It also makes a difference if Lyles joked around or was completely serious in all interactions with other employees.

Anonymous said...

the thread winner:

Automatic_Wing said...
I would bet that the workers at Nike are among the wokest human beings that ever lived, and were totally supportive of trans-mania until they had to deal with it in person.

Fernandinande said...

'stupid' and 'unstable'

Those concepts are compatible with thinking that your body is the wrong sex.

But wait, there's moar!

Starbucks fired a trans supervisor after staff played ‘pig’ prank on cops.

Kevin said...

Sounds like the name Jazz is irrevocably tainted now, between this and that tv show. People will never 100% trust a Jazz again. They’ll be looking for that Adam’s Apple.

ALP said...

I avoid self absorbed, unstable people at work too. So sue me.

Ann - I SO WISH I could find that WaPo 'end of the year' article from several years back. It featured a bunch of 'progressive' journalists that had been asked "What is your hope/dream for the upcoming year in news?" Several gender activists noted that they wished to see gender issues **dominate** the news cycle. Well, I thought that was a pipe dream but here we are.

And how 'true' is a 'truth' that can only happen with modern medicine? One would think truths are universal and timeless.

Anonymous said...

The suit alleged that placing the burden on Lyles to educate colleagues about gender identity...

This "educating colleagues" shite is guaranteed to end badly.

Another coworker allegedly chose not to interact with the plaintiff.

Not the first person I've heard of who concluded that it was the better part of valor to simply avoid any interaction with a tranny co-worker.

Considering that there is apparently no possible "win" to doing so.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Just Lawyers helping Lawyers. This pronouns shit gonna cost Millions in 2020.

BUMBLE BEE said...

IOW...Law School welfare.

Rosalyn C. said...

"They" was probably hired for the job for no other reason than being trans. That's a form of HR malpractice and why the professional hiring agent is included in the lawsuit. What Nike needed was someone with very strong self esteem, a very thick skin, a team leader, a charismatic people person. They didn't hire that. I'm guessing Nike didn't want to pay the salary that a person expects who can turn a culture around and now Nike is paying big time by damaging their brand. We'll see if this affects their bottom line. Funny how Nike finally gets what it deserves even though in this case their intentions were good.

Sebastian said...

"prefers the pronouns they/them/their."

Which law says that people have a right to be called what they prefer?

Since pronouns other than you are mostly used to describe be people to other people, how does the "wrong" use of pronouns affect the designee?

If I demand that someone calls me "I" instead of you, is that also a valid claim? Does grammar get a voice in this?

mikee said...

Odd that it is acceptable now to demand of others that they respect your rules in personal pronoun preferences, but there is no reciprocal accomodation made by you, wherein you respect their rules in, say, personal religious beliefs. It seems almost as if this whole pronoun issue is more about claiming power over others than about any personal gender issues. Surely that cannot be the case, though, since to impugn such motives to an entire identity group population would be an -ism of some kind, if not at least a phobia.

Dave Begley said...

I don't think they are going to collect $1.1m; even in Oregon.

MarkW said...

Given the minimum wage in the USA is $10-15/hour, they could easily pay 3rd world workers $5/hour instead of $1/hour. They don't - because NIKE is full of Greed heads.

No, they couldn't pay their Indonesian workers 5x the market rate. This would make their products more expensive than competitors paying the market rate. And they shouldn't pay 5 times the market rate. If they were to do that, having a Nike factory job would be like winning the lottery. There would be all kinds of bribes and corruption involved in securing those jobs. And it would discourage locals from going into professional jobs if gluing soles onto shoes paid much better. This is a problem in Cuba now where the best paying jobs available are low-skilled jobs where workers can receive tips from western tourists. Let the process work as it has been proven to do. In the last few decades, billions have been lifted out of subsistence poverty by gradually moving up the pay and value scale.

chickelit said...

This just another Heaven's Gate PR victory for Nike.

Dude1394 said...

Hope he/she/it takes them for a bundle. Pretentious pricks that they are.

daskol said...

I do enjoy a certain satisfaction that an ultra woke company like Nike get devoured by the Left.

It’s not just woke companies by which I suppose we mean companies who’ve tied their branding to wokeness. In large corporations across the land, HR and legal are cresting functions similar to student life/diversity officers at universities. There’s training for managers in inclusion, and it’s all very intersectionally informed. It’s a fact at this point that among the biggest propounders of progressive dogma, and there it’s become policy and prescription. Any institution not explicitly anti-progressive will indeed over time be captured by it, and in this climate the changes to accommodate the latest Pokémon characters come visibly quick. These are not the hippies Joe Rohan thinks he grew up among.

Iman said...

Jaysus H. Keyrist, just make this effing nonsense stop.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

I’m guessing Nike settles this quickly. With an NDA, natch. Because Black folks freakin’ love anything with a Swoosh. Their enthusiasm for trannies is markedly more muted. Too much discussion might lead to the two things to become associated in the minds of Blacks. Which will be marketing seppeku.

gavin k said...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PV__CSo1mC4/UA9FVrNk9wI/AAAAAAAAFFY/TrJGENIjLYo/s1600/NL+Sports+lr.jpg

Static Ping said...

MarkW is correct. Among other things, if they were paying $5 an hour in a country where $1 an hour was the going wage, there would be a major problem retaining employees. When you can make 5 years wages in 1 year, why wait to retire? Save up as much money as you can and quit after a couple of years. With that kind of money you can start up your own business or just live comfortably doing whatever you want (or live the high life for as long as the money holds out). If I made 5 times what I made now, I could probably retire within 5 years without any issue, assuming I would be satisfied with my current quality of life.

daskol said...

I wonder what it says about us as a society that we have become so fixated on transsexualism that last half decade. As the TERFs seem to have understood implicitly, it’s a rejection of feminism. Our frustration at upsetting sexual/gender norms has created a reactionary embrace of the fantasy that we can put ourselves as supreme over the endeavor with language. It’s pathetically desperate.

daskol said...

The scary part to me is the way in which it puts mental health into play. Eventually, rejecting the new orthodoxy on sex and gender will become part of a constellation of indicators of mental health concerns, at the same that challenging mental health problems are often comorbid with the conviction that you’re trapped in a body opposite your true sex. Sufficiently sensitive and easily triggered becomes the mental health problem of the people doing the triggering because they’re a lot easier to fix.

Swede said...

You will never be woke enough for these freaks.

Matt said...

F 'em. That's what you get for hiring an insane person.

Idiots.

Lurker21 said...

Kevin said...
Sounds like the name Jazz is irrevocably tainted now, between this and that tv show. People will never 100% trust a Jazz again. They’ll be looking for that Adam’s Apple.


They won't find one. This Jazz was apparently born a woman. The other Jazz was born a man.

These LGBTQ identities conflict with each other. Feminists don't like trans women. All the struggle against gender stereotypes and the trans people revel in them. Gays may wonder why after all their struggles for same sex relationships, some people feel they have to change their sexual organs to have such relationships. And now men who want to be women and women who want to be men have to deal with those who claim to be some other gender entirely. The revolution devours its own.

Lurker21 said...

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...
“In its 'Be True' campaign, Nike hired transgender athletes to promote athletic wear like hoodies and sneakers.”

Think about that for a second. For the ad to signal the necessary virtue the “transgender athletes” would have to be recognizably not of the sex they’re pretending to be.


Not so much. You wouldn't necessarily know that the trans man in one of the ads was born a woman. In some of the other ads it may be more obvious, but the point isn't that the audience knows that the athletes are trans, it's that the people who give political correctness brownie points for these things know.

hombre said...

Hello. My name is Hombre. My pronouns are “he” and “whatever.”

Charlie said...

I think in about 10 years we will look back at this pronoun nonsense and wonder WTF we were doing.

Jupiter said...

You realize, this evil twat is not only pretending to be a man, she is pretending to be an "engineer". And Nike is getting sued for failure to pretend along with her.

effinayright said...

Will someone point out to me what statute compels me to address anyone else by THEIR preferred pronouns?

Or where's that buried elsewhere in the Bill of Rights?

Whatever happened to the idea that "compelled speech" violates the First Amendment"?

When will wymyn begin to understand that the trans men athletes posing as femmes will destroy competitive sports among "normal" women?

Sheer insanity, and no normal person is buying into it.

JAORE said...

The left took controls education today. They are nearing complete control of HR departments today.
And THAT boys and girls (and what evers) is the answer to "Who the hell hires all these gender/racial studies graduates"?

JAORE said...

Just like education, the left has been taking over HR departments for years.

And that boy and girls and whomever else, is the answer to the question, "Who the hell will hire all these grievance studies majors?".

Thuglawlibrarian said...

How many transgendered people are out there? I suspect this is much ado about a teeny tiny number of people.

Earnest Prole said...

Carrion-stench lawyers versus woke corporation: In an ideal world both would lose.

Caligula said...

"The suit alleged that placing the burden on Lyles to educate colleagues about gender identity caused tension between the engineer and coworkers, who allegedly called Lyles 'stupid' and 'unstable.'"

Lyles' colleagues apparently didn't care to be "educated" by Lyle? Imagine that.

Abd Lyles' solution is, they should have to be "educated," and, I should not have to listen to their objections? (Because I get to do the 'educating' here, and everyone else gets to be 'educated').

How, umm, reasonable.