A Facebook firestorm erupted Wednesday after a photo appeared on the social media site of four Potlatch No. 1 Federal Credit Union employees who came to work on Halloween dressed in Olympic uniforms and blackface.

Chris Loseth, president/CEO of the $973 million P1FCU in Lewiston, Idaho said in statement that the picture was meant to be a representation of the first Jamaican national bobsled team who gained fame in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games and whose heroics were made famous in the 1993 movie "Cool Runnings."

"An incident of cultural insensitivity occurred yesterday during Halloween that resulted in the posting of a picture to a personal Facebook page," Loseth wrote on the credit union's Facebook page Wednesday. "The four female employees are shocked and saddened by the results of their depiction of this famous group of Jamaican athletes and meant no harm or disrespect to anyone. P1FCU did not post this picture on our Facebook page and offers our apologies to those who were offended by the actions of these employees. The employees involved have been reprimanded. The need for cultural sensitivity among all Americans is well recognized and we will be reinforcing cultural diversity training with our entire staff."

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.