Gerri Cannon said she is not a racist even though she admittedto writing a racial slur in a social media post.

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The action ignited a fierce Facebook firestorm, which caused herto lose her job in March as a mortgage loan services officer at the$158 million MTC Federal Credit Union in Greenville, S.C.

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Many users of Facebook and other social media sites calledCannon a racist and applauded MTC for firing her. Others argued herconstitutional right to free speech was violated and she should nothave been fired because she posted the comment on her personal timeand personal Facebook site.

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Although the First Amendment prohibits the government fromlimiting free speech, legal and social media experts agree that, ingeneral, the First Amendment does not apply to private employerswho can fire anyone for any reason.

Does your social media policy specifydisciplinary action regarding personal online behavior?

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Nevertheless, Cannon, her lawyer, and legal and social mediaexperts said this incident provides valuable lessons such asleveraging best practices to ensure employees are educated about onthe job and off the job social media policies.

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“Whether a good or bad thing, people's personal behavioronline can reflect on their employer,'' Meredith Olmstead, foundingpartner and social media/inbound marketing consultant of SocialStairway, said. “For this reason, your employee social mediapolicies must include some language covering this area of employeeconduct.”

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Nevertheless, Olmstead, who helps develop social media policiesalong with credit union compliance officers and lawyers, said theCannon case might prompt cooperatives to include specificinformation about online behavior that is not acceptable.

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Another problem, she said, is that organizations may simplydistribute social media policies to employees without anyorientation or training.

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“Sometimes just having a best practice/good judgement type ofconversation with credit union employees could prevent them frommaking a mistake like that,” she said.

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Cannon and her lawyer, Ryan James of Greenville, who is AfricanAmerican, shared their side of the story about how one offensiveword sparked a social media storm. MTC declined to comment becauseit is prohibited by law to publicly discuss personnel matters.

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During theearly evening hours of Sunday, March 20, Cannon said she was athome scrolling through her Facebook site when she read a comment onher news feed from a prominent Black Lives Matter activist andrapper Tef Poe.

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“Dear white people if Trump wins young n***as such as myself arefully hell bent on inciting riots everywhere we go. Just so youknow,” Poe tweeted on March 16. Cannon said this tweet was postedon her Facebook newsfeed.

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Cannon's response was: “N***as better watch out …. white peopleare sick of your racist attitude. We will not sit back andwatch.”

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“I guess that other people looked at me like I said somethingthat's bad, but I didn't mean it the way it came out,” Cannon said.“I was letting people know that [others] are posting ugly, dividingracist comments [and] that is why we've got to stop it. We can'tkeep being racist, black or white. We're going to stop thisdivision, but [the post] came out all wrong.”

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Until she arrived at work on Monday morning, March 21, Cannonsaid she was unaware that her post had exploded on social media,with hundreds of people leaving related comments on Facebook and alocal TV news site.

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According to Cannon, people contacted the credit union andthreatened to picket the branch and close their accounts.

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Cannon's Facebook post, along with a copy of her Facebook pageand photo, was posted by Greenville resident Vannesia Taylor Boltat 7:13 a.m. on Monday, March 21.

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“Well I know where I will be this morning!! I will be at MTCFEDERAL CREDIT UNION letting that manager know THIS is how one ofTHEIR mortgage loan officers GERRI CANNON feels and this is how sheREPRESENTS THEIR CREDIT UNION,” Bolt wrote. “This woman is over ifpeople get loans for HOMES!! Wonder how many people Gerri groupedas (“n***as”) [that] she block[ed] from getting mortgage loans. Iwonder how MTC thinks it looks to have this woman representingtheir bank in this way??? I'll find out today. You all should goand ask them about it as well if you feel inclined to! 124 VerdaeBoulevard, Greenville, SC.”

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Hundreds of people shared Bolt's post.

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Though MTC declined to comment about this incident, William H.Love, the credit union's president/CEO, told a local TV stationthat Cannon had no lending authority and was responsible forcollecting applications and data for loans.

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Later thatmorning, Bolt posted a video of her meeting with an unidentifiedMTC employee. The employee appeared to look uncomfortable when shereviewed the post, told Bolt the credit union was investigating thematter and assured her this sort of incident never occurred at thecredit union.

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“We are saddened about the recent Facebook post involving anemployee,” MTC posted on its website at 2 p.m. March 21. “It is inno way reflective of MTC Federal beliefs, values or policies.Furthermore, the person responsible for posting comments on theirpersonal Facebook page is no longer employed with MTC FederalCredit Union.”

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Although Bolt said the credit union did the right thing, shesaid MTC should have the past mortgage applications handled byCannon reviewed by the appropriate authorities.

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By 10:30 p.m., hundreds if not thousands of people commented onCannon's Facebook post. Gerri Cannon got nearly 60,000 searches andGerri Cannon MTC Federal Credit Union received more than 8,200Facebook searches.

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“My heart is broken that the whole world thinks that I'm aracist,” Cannon said. “Do you really think I would have postedsomething like that if I thought it would have made me lose myjob?”

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Cannon, 62, who joined the credit union four years ago, said shehad an unblemished work record and planned to retire in about threeyears. After all of this negative publicity, she is concerned aboutlanding a new job.

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Cannon admitted that after she read the Tef Poe tweet, she lether emotions get the best of her because she thought his commentswere hateful and divisive.

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She also said that she used the word n***as because Poe used it,and she was not aware that the word was offensive to AfricanAmericans.

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James, Cannon'slawyer, noted that although the word n***as is used by some AfricanAmericans as a term of endearment, other African Americans considerthe word offensive. When n***as is used by whites, AfricanAmericans consider it to be offensive, James said.

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“One hundred percent the emotions got the best of her,” he said.“And as such that she's being labeled as a hateful racist, I canstate definitely that's not the case. The woman sat in my officeand cried her eyes out the other day.”

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But Bolt is not buying Cannon's or James' side of the story.

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“She typed those words. No one forced her to,” Bolt said. “Shetyped how she felt. The words she chose reflected her trueattitude, not the words her legal counsel OKs for her to use afterthe fact.”

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Bolt also doesn't believe that Cannon was unaware that the wordn***as would be offensive.

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“Her former employers made it clear they knew it was offensiveand they apparently wanted nothing to do with those who, in myopinion, are dim enough to think it wasn't offensive,” she said.“Mr. Tef Poe makes his own word choices and so does Ms. Cannon.Gerri Cannon is responsible for her actions and shouldn't usesomeone else's actions as an excuse for hers.”

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Michael C. Jacobson, who worked as an attorney defendingemployers against wrongful termination, discrimination, medicalmalpractice and general liability lawsuits, said an employer couldfire an employee for making a racial slur even if it's written on apersonal social media site.

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However, there may be some exceptions, said Jacobson, who isalso a legal editor for XperHR, a human resources site.

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For example, if an employer has a policy or protocol thatprovides second or third chances for misconduct, that protocolwould have to be followed. Another exception is if an employee isunder contract, either written or implied, which would control howor when termination can occur in response to an incident.

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However, there are legal protections for employees who postcomments on the web, according to employment law attorney LisaGuerin, who has authored numerous books, including “Smart Policiesfor Workplace Technologies.”

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In a nolo.com blog post, she noted in some states, discipliningan employee for a political post such as endorsing a candidatecould be illegal. Employees may also be protected for postingsafety hazards or illegal activity at the workplace. In addition,employees may circumvent disciplinary action if they post concernsabout workplace discrimination, harassment, violations of theFamily and Medical Leave Act, or wage and hour violations,according to Guerin.

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Additionally, under the National Labor Relations Act, employeeswho post comments about low wages, substandard benefits, adifficult manager or long work hours could have a legal claim,Guerin said.