| NAACP calls for aid with racism AIKEN - While praising the swift and decisive response of company leaders, the Aiken chapter of the NAACP called on the State Law Enforcement Division and the U.S. Justice Department to intervene if any further racially offensive incidents surface at Savannah River Site. In a Tuesday news conference, local chapter president the Rev. David Walker said the hanging of a noose from a workplace scaffolding at SRS and the presence of what he called "racially-tinged" graffiti in a portable toilet was "an offensive reminder that we still have miles to go in resolving the problem of racism in our community and state." Westinghouse officials confirmed this week that an employee who left the noose hanging in early November was fired. It was at least the fourth noose discovered at SRS since 2000. The Rev. Walker said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People applauded "the thorough, timely investigation and termination of the guilty employee, and we are encouraged that the management...is taking the incident seriously." But he also urged local and federal authorities to become involved should problems persist at SRS, which already has settled 85 racial discrimination lawsuits. The Rev. Walker said the noose incident and the graffiti "may be symptoms of a larger, ongoing problem that may not always show in nooses or graffiti, but may sometimes show in job actions with regard to hiring, promotion and discipline on the base of race." Company president Bob Pedde said in a Nov. 22 memo to employees that "these types of issues get the highest level of senior management attention," and are treated with the same regard as a "major workplace injury."
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