Help John Talbot

This account is to help our friend, John Talbot overcome the sudden loss of his career. On June 20th in Bozeman, MT John was unfairly, and illegally screamed at as racist in a public setting for mentioning his past work on a DEI committee. As anyone who knows John, and his advocacy work in this area for well over a decade, these allegations are unfounded, untrue, and defamatory.

John subsequently lost his dream job at one of the few major outdoor brands in the USA. The social media mob, riled up by this North Face Climber, labeled him a racist online. Now recruiters in the outdoor space cannot, and will not work with him to find a new role.

I won’t pretend to put myself in John’s shoes. His career and livelihood has been destroyed. 17 years of work and passion… Gone. Now this is all in litigation. And until this is resolved, John has no income and no ability to pay bills, pay a mortgage or help with his two young children or even his rescue dog, Daisy.

We are asking for donations to help John through this difficult time. Below is a more detailed explanation of what transpired. But please know that John needs help. If this can happen to the John Talbot that we know, this can happen to anyone.

“My name is Johnathan Talbot, and I am a victim of cancel culture in the guise of social justice.

When one, clearly intoxicated person can post outrageous, defamatory statements without evidence. To dog-whistle the social media mob to get someone fired and ruin their career and livelihood of 15 years. We are not living anyone’s dream of equality; we are living in the age of social media terrorism.

On June 20th at roughly 9:30pm in Bozeman, MT, I was screamed at in a public setting and called, “racist” by a professional climber for The North Face company for merely having the audacity to mention my past involvement on a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion committee. He was offended by me, a white male, speaking to anything related to DEI. Period. Nothing that I said, or did, was offensive, and this was confirmed through an investigation and interviews by my former employer, Outdoor Research in Seattle, WA. I was not fired for making racist comments, or being violent as this is a lie, and a part of pattern of behavior by him. I was fired because of the “damage to the brand”, regardless of the untrue accusations. Outdoor Research confirmed through interviews with this person, that nothing I said or did was specifically “racist”. Only that I mentioned my work in DEI, and upon being screamed at as “racist”, tried to apologize and understand what I had said that was triggering.  And for those that have seen the videos, apparently, I should have “bought him a beer” afterward…

Them, at 3am on June 21st, a clearly intoxicated person posted videos on Instagram demanding that Outdoor Research “fire” their “racist” employee, John. Tagging other industry professionals including Outdoor Research and The North Face.  This quickly gathered steam while I was asleep, and at 8:00am, I was told by the Outdoor Research HR director, Amy McCanless that I was no longer working on the project that had brought me to Bozeman - and that I was to “lay low” while they investigate and figure out a response… This was all posturing to limit damage to the brand, conduct an investigation and ultimately railroad a Product Manager who had been on the job for only 3 months. For context, I’ve been in various Product Development and Product Management roles for 15 years, working my way from greeting cards into propane camping heaters, military and wildland firefighting packs and gear, to finally, my dream of working for a large outdoor brand as a Product Manager. I had just moved from Bozeman to Seattle a week prior to the incident. My stuff, still in boxes stacked high in a house I had bought, sight unseen, to hasten my move and integration into the company I was so excited to work for. All ruined and destroyed by “cancel culture” and malicious intentions of a single individual who does not know me at all.

I was canceled and shamed on social media, publicly embarrassed and my professional life has been destroyed by the wrongful and illegal allegations of a self-proclaimed, “social justice warrior,” I will not speak his name here. This gentleman is not a social justice warrior, he is a social media terrorist. It is well known and documented in the climbing community that he does this - wrongfully accusing colleagues of “racism” and “violence” in the name of “social justice” to build his own social media following. The North Face knows that he has a pattern of this behavior and uses it to promote their own business interests.

Outdoor Research wrongfully terminated me to mitigate damage to the brand and kowtow to the social media mob that quickly convicted me based on the rantings of an intoxicated man-child. At no point was I allowed to defend myself publicly (not that my own denial would make a difference to the social media mob), make an internal statement to my team, nor was I provided any support from Outdoor Research upon confirming this clear-cut case of defamation of one of their own employees. In fact, I was told specifically by OR’s HR Director, Amy McCanless, “we’re not interested in what Manoah did on social media” … My response, “then what are we even talking about?” And why don’t I have a job?

If this gentleman had even bothered to speak to me about my life, my volunteer work, my own activities around equality and inclusion, he may have discovered that we’re on the same team. Unfortunately, all he saw was my white skin, my shaved head (male pattern baldness), and he saw an opportunity. Period. All he saw was my race and gender and made assumptions that were in his best interest around social media. He didn’t see me as a person with anything to contribute to the causes he purports to care so much about. Nothing in his actions contributed to positive discussions around race and equality in this country. Exactly the opposite in fact. This type of canceling and ruining people’s lives by social media terrorism must stop. I have two small children that I now can’t provide for.

I’m on unemployment for the first time in my life but I will fight this. I will fight this fight not for money, but because it is important and what happened to me could happen to anyone, and it is not right.”

Sincerely,

Johnathan Talbot