Business supplier is pro-Trump and extremely loud about it

One of my suppliers puts out a company bulletin and sends it to customers. They use the newsletter to provide updates about their firm, the industry and so on. But the CEO is a right-wing conservative and throws his political views into the newsletter i.e. supporting Donald Trump, bashing the Ontario government, etc.

Recently I was troubled by an editorial stating that all terrorist attacks were “by Muslims” and arguing that Islam is not a religion, but a political ideology. I find this offensive. I was thinking of politely telling them to take me off their mailing list, but ethically, is there more I should do?

There’s a very important distinction that needs to be made.

Using a supply-chain newsletter to make political statements may be a bit weird, but there’s nothing wrong with doing so.

Like you, I would find the stated views unsavoury.

But democracy only thrives when there is freedom to support political principles, debate party policies and criticize incumbent governments.

So, as long as the editorials stick to politics, I wouldn’t cancel my subscription; it’s good to know what the “other side” is saying.

But there’s a vital distinction between political discourse and statements that are racist, sexist, homophobic or discriminatory. “Donald Trump will be a great president” is a political statement. “Muslims are terrorists” is a statement of blatant religious discrimination. Both are nonsense, but the first is ethically OK. The second is not. One of the tragedies of the Trump presidency is the normalization of hate speech — i.e. “if the president can say it, so can I.”

This was the point “overrated actress” Meryl Streep made at the Golden Globe Awards.

Listen: “this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modelled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.”

“The instinct to humiliate.” And so, when the POTUS demeans women as p-----s to be grabbed, mocks Mexicans as rapists, threatens to treat Muslims as a separate category under American law, ridicules the disabled — the list, as you know, goes on — when all this venom spews from the mouth of the president, it gives permission for ordinary folks to spout the same stuff, not just in corporate newsletters, but in barroom conversations, mom ’n’ tot groups, zealous pulpits and so on.

Resistance, however, is not futile. So please, don’t “politely tell them to take you off their mailing list.” In- stead, write a thoughtful, passionate letter to the CEO, telling him how offensive you find his words. Don’t pull your punches. Make sure he understands that, while you’d like to keep doing business with his company, you will not tolerate racist nonsense.

Demand an apology. And if you don’t get one, source out another supplier and make sure the CEO knows why you are doing so.

It’s up to people like us to be sure our colleagues and friends “get it.” This is Canada, and in this country we will not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic hatred, whether it comes from the president of the United States, the CEO of a company we deal with, candidates for the leadership of a Canadian political party — or anyone else. Send your questions to star.ethics@yahoo.ca