A former high school swim coach in Wisconsin says he was fired for his political beliefs after he posted to Facebook comparing Black Lives Matter to the Ku Klux Klan.
Tim Damico was a former assistant coach for Germantown High School in Eastern Wisconsin. Damico reached out to a local conservative radio host to claim that he’d been fired for his political beliefs.
“On Thursday July 9th I shared a post to my Facebook page comparing the KKK to the BLM organization,” Damico wrote. “Not the statement ‘Black Lives Matter’ because of course I agree with the statement, but the political organization is not something that I as a conservative can or will ever support.”
The Ku Klux Klan is an American hate group that formed at the end of the Civil War to intimidate Black people and to prevent them from enjoying basic civil rights, according to The Southern Poverty Law Center. The KKK had several more revivals throughout American history – in 1920, a resurgent Klan movement opposed Catholic and Jewish immigration, and in the 1960s, the Klan rose again to prominence to oppose the civil rights movement.
Black Lives Matter has become both a rallying slogan and a global organization formed in response to unarmed Black men killed by police or by local vigilantes. The organization itself formed in 2013 after a Black 17-year-old named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a member of a neighborhood watch. The man, George Zimmerman, was charged with but acquitted of second degree murder and manslaughter.
Damico says his Facebook post was sent to school board members, and the athletic director contacted him to let him know the school would not be renewing his coaching contract.
“I came to the conclusion that I am being fired, not for my inability to be a great coach, but because my political stance doesn’t fit with the prevailing narrative,” Damico wrote. “I’m a conservative gun owner who supports President Trump and I will never stop supporting what I believe just to save my job.”
Damico says the athletic director also referenced other posts Damico had shared or posted on Facebook referencing “rioting and looting, most having firearm references.”
School board president Bob Soderberg responded via his own Facebook post, saying Damico “has not told the truth, and certainly not the whole truth about this situation.”
“The posting shockingly states ‘#BLM is a cult and no different than the #KKK’,” Soderberg writes. “Mr. Damico also posted a statement that ‘black lives matter is a joke.’ Again, there’s nothing here distinguishing between supporting the statement (which Mr. Damico claims to support) and the organization (which Mr. Damico opposes) so, once again, Mr. Damico gives the reader no reason to believe that he is making any such distinction.”
In a story by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, District superintendent Brett Stousland said that coaches are at-will employees and not guaranteed a new contract each season.
“As a district, we have a duty to our students, our staff and our community to make certain that our sports programs and activities are not disrupted, and that our personnel don’t actively discourage the student body for going out for sports,” Stousland told the Journal Sentinel. “We felt that his behavior would cause such a substantial disruption within our swimming program that would seriously damage student participation.”
wpDiscuz
🤡🤡🤡
Sure they riot, have a Marxist leader and are militant, but clown show? C’mon man. 🤡
Marxist is an adjective that you just use to mean bad isn’t it? You read a lot of Marx?
It’s a system inferior to capitalism, but not necessarily bad.
See Justin. Marxism is clearly better than capitalism. Just look at all those votes. Someone should ask the Ukrainians if they agree. Or even the subjects of Pol Pot …
“Damico says the athletic director also referenced other posts Damico had shared or posted” Talking Politics and Religion on Social Media is a dark rabbit hole. Stay away from it!
Agree, you live in a country that is sharply divided and no matter what side you are on you are going to offend others and the cancel culture is always present.
I agree with you that cancel culture can be a little bit ridiculous sometimes, but I think being offended that this guy compared an organization that wants equal rights for all Americans with one that has KILLED Americans for wanting equal rights is justified
Unfortunately the organization is a mess and it’s derailing the cause.
Racists shouldn’t be coaches.
Do you know what racism is?
sounds like you don’t
The man said he agrees with the message but not the organization.
Racism is defined as “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.“
I agree on this one. The leadership of the organization is horrible and they are hindering the cause. Do a little research on who the leaders are and how they’ve led that cause and then you can see what he meant. It’s possible to support the cause but not the organization.
except that he doesn’t “Mr. Damico also posted a statement that ‘black lives matter is a joke.”
He is massaging his racist views as he sees it more PC
What Sam just said. And head timer is not a man, for the record.
Well hello headtimer 😎
@Justin Thompson What does this comment mean?
Fine, maybe he’s not blatantly racist, but he’s clearly incapable of understanding large scale systemic racism and lacks the empathy to view America from the viewpoint of the oppressed.
Yes it’s the black lives matter movement
It’s about the kids too, him comparing blm to the kkk is going to make some kids very uncomfortable, those kids matter more than him being able to post whatever he wants.
I do agree in that terms like KKK, racist and facist are thrown around way too casually when trying to make a point.
Considering the down votes, it looks like many people on here think racists should be coaches. Great! Let’s hear it for diversity and inclusion in swimming.
And if you think any black or mixed kids would ever want to swim for a coach who would post things like that, you might want to have another think about it.
That or they aren’t ready to call him a racist for criticism of an organization that has been inciting violence instead of unity.
he called BLM a joke
I have marched with the #BLM movement in NC and never saw any of the leaders inciting violence. I have also seen them encouraging unity against systemic racism and police brutality.
Could be factually correct and if so that’s how it should be, but Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis and LA are a few examples where that hasn’t always been the case. Again, the cause is fine, but should be peaceful.
Thank you for telling me that my experiences could have actually happened.