The Facebook post of Gerod Roth has gotten him into a world of trouble and has sparked the hashtag #HisNameIsCayden on Facebook and Twitter. As seen in the below photo from Facebook, Roth — whose Facebook name is listed as Geris Hilton in the screenshot — simply changed his profile photo to one containing a photo of a co-worker’s 3-year-old son. In the below video from the Daily Mail , Roth said that he just chose one of the more recent photos in his cell phone and used that as his Facebook profile photo.
However, that’s when Gerod’s Facebook friends began chiming in with what many deem are racist and offensive comments. The little 3-year-old, Cayden, was referred to as a slave and one of the children who appear on TV commercials needing help being fed. Another posted comments about Gerod being called “master” in phonetically spelled so-called Ebonics language.
As expected, the post went viral, and Cayden’s mom was none too happy about the comments being made about her son. Sydney Shelton , Cayden’s mom, cried in a video from Fox 5, saying that her son is a well-fed and happy 3-year-old boy.
“People post things in a jokingly [sic] manner and it gets taken a completely different way but I don’t believe any of these people were joking. He is not a deaf child. He is not mute. He has never been abandoned. He is a well-loved, fun-loving, hyper-active and typical three-year-old.”
Sydney is happy that #HisNameIsCayden has gone viral online and that folks are recognizing how much she loves her son — a happy little energetic boy. On Facebook, Polaris Marketing Group President Michael Da Graca Pinto posted his viewpoints about the racist comments. Both Gerod and Sydney worked together at Polaris — that is, until Roth was fired because of the Facebook post and racist comments that ensued. For his part, even though Gerod views himself as a victim as well — and blames his Facebook friends for all the racist comments — Roth did admit to saying maybe Cayden was feral. That “feral” comment was made after one of Roth’s Facebook friends asked if he had wild kids running around his office.
Apparently, Polaris has zero tolerance for such racist behavior, and Pinto posted his thoughts online.
“This morning I was disgusted to learn that one of my former employees made several racially charged comments on his personal Facebook page. Even worse, the comments were directed toward the son of another employee. It breaks my heart that Sydney and her adorable son Cayden were subjected to such hateful, ignorant and despicable behavior. Cayden visits my office almost every afternoon after daycare, he’s sat at my dinner table and I consider him a part of the PMG family.
“The atrocious lies, slander and racism he and his mother have been forced to endure are wholly intolerable. Myself and the entire PMG family in no way condones this kind of behavior and would never willingly associate with anyone who does. It has no place in the world. PMG has terminated the employee responsible and will ensure that none of the businesses that we associate with will ever do business with him again.”
According to Mugshots, Roth has a mugshot as well.
The Facebook page titled Gerod Roth Give Public Apology has plenty of photos of the comments that flowed into Gerod’s Facebook page and comments about the situation are being posted there as well. Perhaps the above video interview with Roth was considered his public apology, seeing as though he copped to the “feral” comment and felt bad about the situation. Yet and still, Gerod seemingly believes he’s a victim in all of it. However, it seems as soon as Roth changed his Facebook profile photo to the one with him and Cayden and the first racist comment was made, Roth could’ve hidden or blocked the comment — or told his Facebook friends to stop. Instead, he’s out of a job.
[Images via Facebook/Mugshots]
