On the Job (Im)morality

By Janis Prince Inniss

Michael Nader is caught in a drug bust.

A weather forecaster posts a nude photo on his MySpace page.

Photos capture Kate Moss allegedly snorting cocaine.

What do these people and scenarios have in common? All of them were fired from their jobs for engaging in illegal or morally questionable behaviors (Nader was fired from the soap opera “All My Children”, the weather forecaster from a Roanoke TV station, and Moss was fired from the clothing chain H&M).

What (mis)behaviors would cause my university to show me the door? And how about you? What would make you lose your job?

Many actors, sports stars, and people employed in a variety of other industries are subject to so-called morality clauses in employment contracts. Such clauses allow employers to terminate a contract if their employee engages in behavior that could tarnish the company’s image. The morals clause is used in some of the endorsement contracts of professional athletes as a means of protecting the image the athlete is representing, and the image of the athlete given their relationship to a product. 

Only one day after he pleaded not guilty to dog-fighting charges, Nike suspended the contract of NFL football player, Michael Vick. Reebok had no contract with Vick but stopped selling his jersey and was willing to take back any unsold ones from stores—all before he was even convicted. When the football player pleaded guilty to federal dog-fighting charges and made a plea deal a few weeks later, Nike severed ties with him and the NFL suspended him indefinitely. It will be at least two years before Vick will be able to attempt a return to the NFL, although his team’s owner has made it clear that Vick will not be welcomed back to that team.

Similarly, basketball player Kobe Bryant lost major endorsement deals when he was accused of raping a 19-year old woman. Although the case was later dismissed, McDonald’s and Nutella “dropped their deals” with Bryant. Nike benched Bryant for about two years and it was three years before he got a new deal (with PlayStation 2). 

Murder charges for his role in the deaths of two men were eventually dropped against football player Ray Lewis, but even then the NFL fined him $250,000. Although Lewis has since received some endorsements, the season after the trial, Lewis was not given the “I’m going to Disney World” ad line, although he was the Most Valuable Player, nor did his picture grace the Wheaties cereal box with some of his teammates. In fact, the NFL appears to be taking their players’ off the field conduct seriously enough to hire a full-time security director for each team, all due to a new personal conduct policy designed to keep the “integrity and reputation” of the NFL intact. 

In contrast, criminal behavior gives rappers street “cred” rather than job trouble. The case of 32 year-old rapper Rick Ross epitomizes this phenomenon. Ross was so reluctant to be associated with law and order, that he denies ever having been a corrections officer. He has claimed that photographs showing him as a corrections officer are fake. However, The Smoking Gun website has numerous documents related to Ross’s previous job, including his application, letter of appointment, and resignation letter. 

The singer/rapper Akon is another artist who has gone to extremes to create a thuggish background. Yet, The Smoking Gun research indicates that Akon is not as threatening as he claims to be in his songs. Akon brags that he spent more than four years in jail, but he was only in prison for a few months. Akon also inflated his criminal record by claiming to have been jailed for being the head of a car-theft ring which left people “traumatized for months”; in fact, Akon was jailed for driving a BMW stolen by someone else, and the charges against him were eventually dropped! Turns out that his hit “Locked Up” was not written in jail as he claimed.

Why does being a thug aid success for a rapper—so much so that folks like Akon and Rick Ross lie about their pasts? In what other arena of life is criminality valued? Many fans of this music genre, particularly the subgenre that focuses on violence and sex, are a subculture: They are a group whose values and norms might be different from—and in fact they may reject—those of the rest of society. But are there other arenas in which the values and norms of such people deviate from the mainstream? Or are they mostly quite similar to everyone else? 

There might be athletes or other high profile people that you think were not sanctioned enough. And many of the most popular rappers appear to be telling the truth about their criminal pasts and many continue to have legal worries (Jay-Z, T.I. Busta Rhymes, Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg are a few who fall into either or both of these categories). But can you think of any rappers who were sanctioned as the athletes mentioned here were, or whose careers were slowed or ended because of their criminality? In what other career can you glorify being on the wrong side of the law? Rappers don’t they lose their jobs for their illegal/immoral acts, they fabricate them if they don’t exist and where their misdeeds are real, they brag about them which gives them currency in a particular subculture.

Comments

[bhoconnor]

Great thoughts, and many thanks to all who are behind this blog--WHAT an important aim to make sociology approachable for everyday folks. Hear, hear, and again, many thanks!!

[zeus]

It is obvious that there are quite a few morons in this country who are willing to engage in deviant behaviors such as dog-fighting , rape and murder. As earlier stated, Mike Vick has proven that even someone with his face on the cover of a video game will sometimes opt for the low road and resign to fighting dogs to death for small amounts of money.
And what should we think of Kobe Bryant? He’s a man who could have had his pick of millions of women in Los Angeles, but he decides the one girl who doesn’t appreciate his sexual advances is the one for him. Well, that sure proved to be a costly judgmental error. With respect to Ray Lewis, I guess I don’t want to say anything inflammatory about a murderer!
My point is; the rappers who claim to be bad with no rap sheet should be ashamed of themselves. When they are being outplayed at their own game by multimillionaire sports stars you’d think they would realize they should just take a back seat. There are plenty of well qualified criminals and lowlifes in this great country, and there is certainly no need for the rap industry to compromise when it comes to their new hires with such an abundance of talent on hand.