local news
tazo
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ditions hard to bear.
Shakur Shabazz — a four year employee
–was fired in September 2010 for arriving
late, soon after an injury caused doctors to
put him on a light work schedule and man-
agers had given him a flexible schedule, he
says.
Steve Murray – a 12-year employee —
was fired in July 2010 after management
told him he wasn’t doing a good enough job
on a position he wasn’t fully trained to
accomplish.
Lawrence Willis – a four-year employee
— says he was fired for “no call, no show”
in May 2009 when he was sick. He says he
did call in to report his absence that day.
The Skanner News was unable to speak
with the fourth employee.
Stacey Krum, a spokesperson for
Starbucks, says they “certainly deny the
allegations” of disparate treatment or
wrongful firing.
“Mr. Shabazz’ complaint was the first and
only indication of any such concerns at the
plant,” wrote Krum in an email response to
The Skanner News’ inquiry. “We take this
issue very seriously and are cooperating in
the investigation. We are confident that the
evidence will show that the actions involv-
ing Mr. Shabazz and others individuals he
has named were made for legitimate, per-
formance-related reasons.”
on Light duty
Shabbaz – like Willis – said his troubles
began when he “challenged the company’s
policies” regarding his constant shift
changes.
“I got hired the same day as a Caucasian
man and I got changed regularly to swing,
graveyard and day shift,” he said.
In the month before he was fired, Shabazz
said he began having severe spasms and
pain in his foot – a foot that had nearly been
severed when a forklift fell on it back in
1979. He visited two different doctors, both
of which recommended he be put on “light
duty.” He was to work no more than 6 hours
a day, according to a note from his doctor,
although he said he was still put on duty that
kept him on his feet.
In addition, he says he was not allowed to
take his prescription pain medication during
the day.
“So I’d take it at night,” he said. “One
night, I overslept because of that. I don’t
normally take medication … it kind of over-
whelmed me.”
The week before, Shabazz — says man-
agers had told him he could be flexible
when coming to work. But on Monday
morning, he was fired for arriving slightly
past 9 a.m., despite calling in.
the Oregon Bureau of labor and industries have launched a formal
investigation into Starbucks after Shakur Shabazz leveled allegations of wrongful
termination and mistreatment.
Murray was hired on Oct. 16, 1998 in the
shipping department and said his troubles
began when he asked one manager to sit in
on his weekly meetings with his direct
supervisor. He said he wasn’t “comfortable”
with her had feared she’d misrepresent his
concerns during the meetings. His request
was never granted.
On Dec. 17, 2009, Murray called in sick.
The next day he showed up, he got a write-
up. They told him there was a single order
left in the in-box when he left his last shift
– an order he said was not there on Dec. 16.
“I tried to explain to (the manager) that
the order wasn’t there when I left,” he said.
“In all the years I’ve been there, I’d never
heard of anyone else being treated with such
harshness.”
Then in May of 2010, Murray was told he
was to engage in mandatory cross-training
on a job in a different part of the warehouse.
Because of the previous write-up, he said he
was not eligible for the .
Murray said he was given “no support that
was meaningful on the new position.”
Others put on “cross duty” were not
assigned full-time to their positions and he
says White workers were not given manda-
tory cross-training.
He said he was fired when managers told
him he wasn’t suitable for the new position
– a position he did not want to fill. He had
been told he could not make more than three
published in the May 2009 Journal of
Clinical Investigation, found that test sub-
jects who consumed fructose beverages,
along with a diet of their choice, gained sig-
nificantly more abdominal weight when
compared to glucose-beverage drinkers.
Both groups gained the same amount of fat
during the study period.
Robert Lustig M.D., a neuroendocrinolo-
gist at the University of California-SF, con-
siders fructose to be a poison.
That’s right. All those sugar-packed colas,
energy drinks, “teas” and candies young
and old alike love to consume? Lustig says
they’re slowly killing us. In particular,
Lustig says soda has helped fuel the
increase in about a dozen illnesses.
“It’s like drinking a pizza,” he says,
adding that soft drink companies have to
add high amounts of sugar to disguise the
high amounts of salt contained in the bever-
ages.
Fructose also may play a role in suppress-
ing a hormone called Leptin, which plays a
key role in regulating our appetites, he says.
“If you feed a kid a can of soda and
unleash him on a meal, does he eat less or
does he eat more? He’s just consumed 150
calories, yet he eats more,” Lustig said.
Lustig also says that chronic Fructose
consumption can cause eight of the 12 dis-
eases commonly associated with alco-
holism, and there is evidence that it can also
lead to Chronic Metabolic Syndrome –
which is characterized by central obesity
(the location of fat around the waist), hyper-
tension, type 2 diabetes, high blood pres-
sure, lipid problems and elevated triglyc-
erides (which can increase risk of heart dis-
ease and stroke).
Purnell says the OHSU study should
cause consumers to pay more attention to
the ingredients in their food.
“This study is supportive of emerging lit-
erature that fructose, as a food additive, is
not something we want to be advocating for
the wider population,” Purnell said.
influenced your work on this album?
SS: We’re really into the ’90s hip hop…
I’m really into the DJ/Emcee combination.
One of the first tapes I had was Pete Rock
and CL Smooth and so that was a big influ-
ence. “Get Started” with DJ Premier and
Guru, and Guru just passed away, actually.
Dr. Dre and Snoop. Stuff like that.
We’re just really trying to focus on …
people try to label it the “real hip hop” and
stuff, but we’re just trying to do what we’re
into, what we think sounds good.
tSn: Do you get much say in the beats
and samples Sect gives you?
SS: Yeah, he’ll have a rough draft of it,
then I’ll come in and help co-produce. He’ll
have the loop or the arrangement, I’ll say
like ‘Can we move the beats over here, so
we can actually get a whole song out of it?’
He’s finding all these dusty old samples and
looping them up and I’ll have some ideas,
like, can we make that be the chorus
melody, and this can be the bass, and maybe
some scratching would sound good here.
tSn: I thought the use of funk and soul
along with your verse really made the
album pop. It really works together.
Fantastic musical choice. I dug it.
SS: Yeah, I give him (Universal DJ Sect)
all the credit. Without him … I mean I know
other beat makers and stuff, but the materi-
al I’ve done with him, people have been
really responsive to. He did the last album
(“Concrete Techniques”) which is similar to
this one but with a darker edge to it.
tSn: What do you like to talk about in
your songs?
SS: I like to talk about hip hop and what’s
going on in it today. I figure if you always
speak about what’s going on in the culture
you’re involved in, then it won’t ever really
die. There’s a lot going on in hip hop culture
that is not exactly true to the form it was
started in … I’m not saying it has to always
remain a certain way. I think one of the best
things about hip hop is that there are so
many different styles, but the main ingredi-
ent was bringing people together just to
have a good time. That’s what we try to do
with live shows, to present the best skill
representation of DJ and Emcee, which is
only two elements of the culture.
When I think about writing rhymes, I like
to touch on autobiographical stuff, especial-
ly on the song Rose Blood, which is one
long verse, which is all true things that have
happened, and on the last joint, which is
“Eyes Open,” talk about societal and not
necessarily political, but stuff that goes on
and there’s not much change that does hap-
pen even though a lot of leaders kind of
preach that what’s gonna happen.
tSn: How do you say that the local scene
influences your music?
SS: I don’t think the local scene influ-
ences me too much, specifically. I think
there are a lot of good hip hop artists here,
but I wanna be heard on a bigger scale. I do
pay attention to what is going on. Everyone
on the album is a local emcee, and I feel
they are the best representation of emcee
coming out of Portland. You’d be surprised
how many rappers are here.
the 12-Year Veteran
See BoLi on page 6
Sugar
continued from page 1
sugars affect the brain in different ways.
“There’s plenty of animal data and now
human data that suggests fructose, which is
a different compound from glucose from a
simple carbohydrate standpoint,” he said.
“has markedly different metabolic effects
on food intake and body weight. What this
supports is that in the brains of humans …
that the brain responds differently to these
two compounds, in the opposite manner.”
In other words, your body does one thing
with glucose, but another with fructose.
A 2009 study by researchers at University
of California-Davis demonstrated that con-
suming fructose-sweetened beverages will
cause unnatural fat distribution. The report,
Serge
continued from page 1
at the Ash Street Saloon with additional per-
formances from Mic Crenshaw and Destro
& L Pro.
Severe sat down with The Skanner News
to talk about his influences, his father’s
legacy, finding fans in Portland and the DJ
that has inspired his best work yet.
the Skanner news: Tell me a little about
“Back on My Rhymes” and the work that
went into it?
Serge Severe: It mainly starts with my DJ
(Universal DJ Sect), who is the producer, he
produced my last record, “Concrete
Techniques.” He has a really deep collec-
tion of vinyl that dates back and is heavily
focused on funk and soul records. He has
thousands of them. He’s providing the
soundscapes for me. I write in a number of
different ways. I’ll have some rhymes
already there and they’ll match up to the
tempos and beats or I write on the spot if the
beat is speaking to me. There’s a couple of
different ways we go at it.
tSn: Are there any specific artists who
See SeVere on page 6
February 16, 2011 The Seattle Skanner Page 3