Black woman denied work at Catholic church over priest's "racist dog"

Source: Afro Newspaper/Gado / Getty

Black Woman Denied Work At Church Over Alleged Racist Dog

It’s 2019 and THIS is the type of bulls#!t Black folks still have to deal with.

According to a story in the Washington Post, a Black cleaning lady was denied a job at a Catholic church when she was told that the Priest’s dog is racist as hell.

*blank face emoji*

LaShundra Allen walked into Catholic Church of the Incarnation in Collierville, Tennessee alongside a white co-worker for her first day of work cleaning Rev. Jacek Kowal’s rectory when the church secretary gave her a puzzled looked. The white co-worker was moving on to another job and brought LaShundra to replace her, the secretary said she needed to confirm that this was ok with Kowal.

Upon returning to the ladies, this is was the secretary told them:

“I’m sorry,” Kowal’s secretary said, according to a complaint sent to the Catholic Diocese of Memphis last month. “We are not trying to be rude, but the dog doesn’t like black people.”

B!tc#, what??

Allen said she “didn’t really even have words,” baffled at what she just heard. She was ultimately turned away, and the experience haunted her so much that she felt she could not stay silent. “They came at me like it was supposed to be a joke,” she said, “but it was not funny. There was nothing funny about it.” Allen and Weaver sent a racial discrimination complaint to the Diocese of Memphis on July 3, seeking a “settlement and compromise.”

After turning her away, the diocese went on to try to rationalize this blatant racism.

In the church’s version of events, the secretary’s words were, “Father Jacek’s dog is kinda racist” — although in the eyes of the diocese, the statement did not stem from any racial discrimination. The priest and church staff were strictly concerned that the dog, a German shepherd named Ceaser, could attack Allen or both women, based in part on a past incident the dog had with an African American person, according to the letter from Bishop David P. Talley.

“Although the parish staff member’s choice of words was highly unfortunate and imprecise — they were not motivated by racial animus,” Talley wrote. “Rather, the concern by all involved was the safety of these women, one of whom was a stranger to the dog, and they knew that attempting to crate the dog would be dangerous when its owner was not present.”

Talley went on to say:

“The staff were aware that years ago the dog had been threatened by a person who happened to be African American, causing the dog to be somewhat more agitated initially around strangers with darker skin, until the dog gets to know them,” Talley wrote. “The replacement employee who was planning to enter the rectory was an African-American person the dog had never met.”

Throw this whole church into the firey pits of Hell. SMFH.