Latest news with #TonyBennett
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Yahoo
Black warehouse worker wins £3k payout after colleague's ‘slave' graffito on machinery
A Black warehouse employee has won a race harassment claim for £3,000 after a fellow worker wrote the word 'slave' on a piece of machinery. Seedy Fofana, a former employee at Window Widgets in Gloucester, which deals in plastic and metal parts for windows, was the only Black worker in the warehouse. He originally sought £500,000 in compensation after resigning a month after seeing the phrase written on a Hubtex machine. The word had not been intended as a racial slur but a comment on the working conditions of the warehouse, an employment tribunal heard. Another worker, Tony Bennett, had written variants of the word on multiple items of machinery in protest at working conditions. The employer, who removed all graffiti produced by Mr Bennett but did not see the final, offending piece, was found to have created a 'hostile, humiliating and offensive environment for him' at the tribunal in Bristol. The tribunal found that while finding in the complainant's favour might seem 'harsh', the presence of the highly-charged phrase had to warrant punishment. Judge David Hughes said: 'This is because the term 'slave' will, we find, evoke in contemporary English speakers the enslavement of Black people. All right-thinking people regard slavery as a monstrosity. 'Mr Fofana, an evidently proud Black man, feels the evil of slavery viscerally. That is understandable and respectable. We accept his sense of hurt at the graffito is genuine.' He added: 'The graffito could bear a number of meanings. It could carry the meaning that [the colleague] intended. It might have been understood as a comment on obedient machinery… taking the place of the labour of humans, or on humans' relationship to machines. 'But when one hears the word slavery, English speakers in this jurisdiction in this decade will probably first think of the enslavement of Black people by white people.'
The Independent
05-08-2025
- The Independent
Black warehouse worker wins £3k payout after colleague's ‘slave' graffito on machinery
A Black warehouse employee has won a race harassment claim for £3,000 after a fellow worker wrote the word 'slave' on a piece of machinery. Seedy Fofana, a former employee at Window Widgets in Gloucester, which deals in plastic and metal parts for windows, was the only Black worker in the warehouse. He originally sought £500,000 in compensation after resigning a month after seeing the phrase written on a Hubtex machine. The word had not been intended as a racial slur but a comment on the working conditions of the warehouse, an employment tribunal heard. Another worker, Tony Bennett, had written variants of the word on multiple items of machinery in protest at working conditions. The employer, who removed all graffiti produced by Mr Bennett but did not see the final, offending piece, was found to have created a 'hostile, humiliating and offensive environment for him' at the tribunal in Bristol. The tribunal found that while finding in the complainant's favour might seem 'harsh', the presence of the highly-charged phrase had to warrant punishment. Judge David Hughes said: 'This is because the term 'slave' will, we find, evoke in contemporary English speakers the enslavement of Black people. All right-thinking people regard slavery as a monstrosity. 'Mr Fofana, an evidently proud Black man, feels the evil of slavery viscerally. That is understandable and respectable. We accept his sense of hurt at the graffito is genuine.' He added: 'The graffito could bear a number of meanings. It could carry the meaning that [the colleague] intended. It might have been understood as a comment on obedient machinery… taking the place of the labour of humans, or on humans' relationship to machines. 'But when one hears the word slavery, English speakers in this jurisdiction in this decade will probably first think of the enslavement of Black people by white people.'
Telegraph
05-08-2025
- Telegraph
Comparing workplace conditions to slavery is racial harassment, tribunal rules
A black warehouse worker won a race harassment claim after a colleague graffitied 'slave' in reference to their working conditions. An employment tribunal ruled that Seedy Fofana was entitled to £3,000 compensation after he saw a graffiti of the word 'slave', which 'violated' his dignity. The intended use of the word was nothing to do with race but was an expression of another staff member's frustration at being 'over-worked and under paid', the tribunal heard. 'Violating dignity' Employment Judge David Hughes concluded that even though the colleague 'did not intend to write a graffito that related to race', the term slave does 'evoke in contemporary English speakers the enslavement of black people'. He added: 'Mr Fofana, an evidently-proud black man, feels the evil of slavery viscerally. That is understandable and respectable. We accept his sense of hurt at the graffito is genuine.' He found that 'the graffito did have the effect of violating the [Mr Fofana's] dignity, and creating a hostile, humiliating and offensive environment for him'. The hearing in Bristol was told Mr Fofana was the only black man at Window Widgets in Gloucester, where he started working in September 2023. In August 2022, co-worker Tony Bennett had taken to writing graffiti referencing 'modern slavery' and 'slavery' around the warehouse in protest against the working conditions. The tribunal heard that this included writing the words 'Slave No.' with an arrow pointing to the number three on a forklift-type piece of equipment. Bosses removed all of the graffiti except one they had not spotted, but Mr Fofana saw it in December 2023. He resigned the following month, complaining about the hostile behaviour of staff towards him and then sued the company, claiming £500,000 in compensation. Workplace 'banter' The warehouse had a history of 'banter' within the workplace and several staff had been warned about not crossing a professional boundary, the tribunal heard. One incident saw a colleague sing the songs Bombastic and Iron Lion Zion to Mr Fofana, but they denied any offensive intent. At the tribunal Mr Fofana argued the 'Slave' graffiti caused him to resign, although he admitted he did not report it to anyone, or attempt to remove it himself. He said he had no confidence bosses would investigate properly and that it wasn't his job to clean it up. Employment Judge Hughes said: 'We understand that it was not for him to remove the graffito – why should he clean up someone else's vandalism?' but he added that it could not be removed if no one reported it. He said the company 'cannot be criticised for not addressing a problem of which they were unaware'. Relation to race Upholding Mr Fofana's race harassment claim, he concluded that Mr Bennett wrote the word in August 2022, and did so while employed by Window Widgets. He added: 'It may seem harsh to [the company], but that means that [they] wrote the graffito. 'Equally harsh may seem the conclusion that [Window Widgets] failed to remove a graffito that went unnoticed. But that finding is inevitable. 'We have found that the graffito did relate to race.' However, the tribunal said Mr Fofana's claim for half a million pounds in damages was 'unrealistic'. 'This was a hurtful graffito, but it was one written by a rogue employee, not intended to refer to [his] race, in not prominent writing. 'The [company's] management of the workplace certainly had shortcomings, but we have found that management was not aware of the graffito, and when it learnt of it, took appropriate steps.'
Fox News
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Pelosi calls Lady Gaga concert in San Francisco 'the most fun I've had in a long time'
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was spotted this week with a cheering crowd at a Lady Gaga concert in San Francisco. "It was a fabulous show in San Francisco!" Pelosi, the 85-year-old speaker emerita, said in a post Tuesday on X. "The most fun I've had in a long time." A video of the event, part of Lady Gaga's global Mayhem Ball Tour, shows Pelosi walking to her seat close to the stage as Gaga performs. She is then seen moving to the performance as Lady Gaga plays the guitar. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Pelosi attended the concert with her husband, Paul Pelosi. Tickets for the concert ranged from roughly $175 to $550, while the range for VIP tickets was $700 to $1,000. In 2021, Pelosi attended a Lady Gaga concert with Tony Bennett at Radio City Music Hall in New York, the newspaper reported.
Daily Mail
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE How Rachael Ray is 'swimming against the tide' with her career in 'critical' transition
Over the past few months, celebrity chef Rachael Ray has been making headlines with fans growing increasingly concerned for her health amid a string of 'bizarre' behavior - and, according to a psychic, her career might be in a 'critical' transition. Ray, 56, was the star of the Food Network for many years, as she hosted multiple shows on the channel, including her signature 30 Minute Meals, which skyrocketed her to fame in the early 2000s. The chef also had a talk show, called The Rachael Ray Show, which lasted for nearly two decades on television from 2006 to 2023. At one point, she was at the top of the food industry, her first talk show season having 2.3 million national household rating, per Variety - the best premiere of a syndicated talk show since the premiere of Dr. Phil. But over the past few years, Ray has sparked fresh concern from fans, especially last September, when she was seen slurring her words in a video she had posted to social media. The video was a preview from her new show, Rachael Ray in Tuscany, and showed her cooking Ossobuco while paying tribute to the late Tony Bennett. Soon after the video, viewers voiced their worry for the star, which prompted Ray to admit that she had recently suffered from a 'couple of bad falls.' Things only seemed to get worse from there, as she left fans concerned once again in May after she appeared to slur her words in a Mother's Day video on Instagram, and left fans disturbed by 'bizarre' behavior at a meet-and-greet in New York City this month. It begs the question: amid all this concern, where is her career going? Currently, Ray has a show on FYI, Rachael Ray in Tuscany, which she films from her home in Italy, and stars in A+E's Meals In Minutes. She also released the first season of her podcast, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, this past Fall. In addition, she is the head of her own content studio with some of her longtime partners, Free Food Content Studios - which A+E Network acquired a 50 percent stake in last year, per Variety. But according to psychic Athos Salomé, 38, from Brazil, Ray is 'swimming against the tide' as the market she is a part of is rapidly changing directions. Salomé is often referred to as the 'Living Nostradamus' due to his numerous accurate predictions - including his forecasting of the coronavirus pandemic, Queen Elizabeth II's death and the Microsoft global outage. He has now told the Daily Mail that Ray's best bet in business right now may be to aim towards cutting a deal with a streaming platform. 'She is in a critical transition phase,' Salomé told Daily Mail exclusively. 'She should be able to sign one or two cable or streaming deals by the end of 2026. Nothing grandiose - short specials, "safe and risk-free" programs, to keep her name in circulation,' the clairvoyant said. However, he predicted that there is only a 30 percent chance of Ray getting a 'major' streaming deal - but it's a goal that she should be aiming for. He also noted that her YouTube and Instagram pages, where she posts clips from her episodes, have the potential to grow, but many of her videos have not gone viral. 'It will be a slow and consistent increase, to keep the loyal audience, which is already older,' he said. Ideally, the best case scenario for Ray would be to get another lucrative contract with The Food Network once again, or a different TV platform like Hulu, Salomé explained. 'We're talking big money, fancy production, heavy promotion,' he said. 'The result? A special that goes viral, puts her back in the headlines and makes her seem "current" even though she's been on the road for decades,' the Living Nostradamus continued. If she were to sign with a big network, Salomé suggested that she could use that momentum to introduce her own line of utensils or publish more cookbooks. She could use the momentum to launch a new line of utensils or more cookbooks, capitalizing on the good times with strong sales in stores and online. In May, an insider revealed to Daily Mail that those close to Ray are 'concerned,' especially after the Mother's Day video that she posted where she appeared to be slurring her words He warns that her brand could become 'irrelevant' if it fails to evolve over time. In May, an insider revealed to Daily Mail that those close to Ray are 'concerned,' especially after the Mother's Day video that she posted where she appeared to be slurring her words. 'Those close to Rachael are so concerned,' the insider disclosed. 'She has shut people out and lives a very secluded life.' 'She seems lost and when anyone reaches out to her she doesn't respond. 'Rachael was always so meticulous about her appearance, and it is very telling and concerning that she now just doesn't care. It is indicative of a bigger issue.'
