By Jerry Bellune

JerryBellune@yahoo.com

Taxpayer-owned Santee Cooper is checkibng allegations an employee made social media racial slurs.

A racially-charged Facebook post was seemingly shared by a Santee Cooper employee, said Marilyn Hemingway, CEO of the Gullah Geechee Chamber of Commerce..

The Monck's Corner-based utility company said it's looking into the post, saying, “Santee Cooper does not tolerate racism of any kind.

"We are currently investigating the situation, as we do any time a member of the public expresses a concern about one of our employees.”

It's the 2nd time in 2 weeks a Santee Cooper employee has been at the center of a racism allegation, Hemingway said.

She was shocked at the brazenness of this post.

Less than 2 weeks ago, the utility said it fired an employee after a series of racist comments were directed at people protesting a John C. Calhoun statue.

Calhoun was a SC political leader and advocate in the US Congress for the slave-plantation system before the Civil War. 

Hemingway said the employee wrote on Twitter that she "wished they could load them on a boat and send them back one way from where they came from."

Another shared post that allegedly appears on another Santee Cooper employee's page says, "If black lives really mattered, they'd be tearing down crack houses instead of statues."

Hemingway said she asked Santee Coopoer managers, “Don’t be reactive to this, be proactive."

She said Santee Cooper may be proactive "but we need to see it, because we are taxpayers and ratepayers and if they can’t do it then get out of the way.

"The people are demanding change.”

Hemingway said she hopes that one step will include racial sensitivity training for the utility's employees.