Racist Jokes About This Photo Got People Fired and Sparked the Hashtag #HisNameIsCayden

By Dian Ozemebhoya Eromosele, The Root

There is a man who goes by the name of Geris Hilton on Facebook (reportedly not his real name) who used to have a job.

“Hilton” used to work at Polaris Marketing Group, according to AtlantaBlackStar, but his employment status changed after he posted a photo on Facebook Sept. 16.

In the photo, Hilton was taking a selfie at work, alongside a little cute black boy who is the son of one of his now-former co-workers—a dandy woman by the name of Sydney.

All was seemingly fine, until Hilton and his friends started making racist jokes about the photo in the comments section on Facebook, insinuating that the little boy, whose name is Cayden, was a slave, and Hilton the slave master.

The photo has made its way around the Internet. As you guessed it, pink slips are flying and heads are rolling because of the racist shenanigans afoot in the photo’s comments section.

“I didn’t know you were a slave owner,” a poster by the name of Emily Irene Red reportedly said. According to the tweet below, she has since been fired. Casualty No. 1.

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The president of Polaris Marketing Group posted a note on Facebook announcing that an employee—the man behind the Hilton Facebook profile, according to AtlantaBlackStar—had been terminated and denouncing the disgusting comments he and his friends made about the little boy…

Sydney Jade, Cayden’s mother, got on social media to thank all of the people who spread the news about the inappropriate photo. She created the hashtag #HisNameIsCayden to make the statement that her little boy is a person and shouldn’t be objectified or trivialized as the butt of a racist joke.

[…]

This’ll teach people to keep their lack of home training to themselves and not bring it out into the public sphere.

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