“I’d like to have them understand not just my religion, but also other minority religions,” Shiff says. “Realize we exist. Realize that even though they are the mainstream by an overwhelming majority, theirs is not the only religion, that there are other religions and that they need to respect them.”
Earlier this month, Shiff spoke again with representatives from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. He says they told him Ralphs was looking to negotiate a settlement on the issue of past harassment from co-workers. But on the issue of the witch display, the agents told Shiff, there was nothing that could be done. The department can’t interfere with a corporation’s “marketing.” They might have been able to do something about a display like that if it had depicted Jewish or black stereotypes, Shiff says he was told. But the case law simply isn’t there for witches.
John Gilhooley
Milo Shiff holds a candle for his religion
John Gilhooley
Shiff works six days per week as a grocery-store greeter
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Catherine Fisk, a professor at UC Irvine’s school of law who teaches classes on harassment and discrimination law, doesn’t see it that way. From the way it sounds, she says, Shiff just might have a case. “In the ordinary harassment scenario, if you intend to force the employee to engage in conduct, even if you don’t know that it’s humiliating to them because of their status or their religion, there’s liability,” she says. “The employer who says, ‘Sure, I make young women dress up in wet T-shirts; I didn’t think that it bothered them’ doesn’t have a defense. So if you analyze the case that way, it seems clear that he has a claim.”
Shiff told the department’s agents he didn’t want to settle with Ralphs if the witch decoration wasn’t going to be formally addressed. He admits, though, that some of his concerns have already been alleviated. At least one employee he said had been harassing him has been transferred to another store. While he appreciated that the witch display wasn’t as prominent this past Halloween, he says, for Ralphs to publicly denounce the witch depiction to which he objects would mean a lot.
“I’m going to push it as far as I can,” he says. “If I can get a Fortune 100 company to make a change, that will help people all over the country. Because we all know change happens one step at a time.”
On Feb. 19, Shiff says, he returned from his lunch break to find John Schroeder, Ralphs’ group vice president for human resources, waiting for him at the store. According to Shiff, Schroeder told him that Ralphs was considering hiring a cultural specialist and that he would recommend the store avoid using witch decorations in the future. Schroeder cautioned that he didn’t have final decision-making authority, but Shiff is hopeful. “He gave me the impression, for the first time, that somebody was taking me seriously,” he says.
* * *
Shiff won’t shake your hand; the handshake, he explains, is a holdover from the Christian crusades. When the president of Ralphs wished employees a “Merry Christmas” in a company newsletter, Shiff says he was perturbed, as Christmas was once used as an occasion to harass Jews in European villages. The company’s annual employee-awards party last year was Egyptian-themed. Shiff was aghast at the use of hieroglyphics, which to him are sacred writings, in the decorations.
Shiff admits it isn’t always easy adhering to a religion—and a reading of history—that puts him at odds with the society around him. But Kemetic Witchcraft isn’t the only religion that’s inconvenient. Courts have upheld the rights of religious parishioners to observe their holidays, dress codes and morals in the workplace, as long as it’s to a reasonable extent. But few other groups, Shiff points out, still must contend with anything like the green-faced, child-eating witch—a depiction of their religion that’s both ugly and so ingrained into modern culture that almost no one thinks twice about it.
Even so, a few of his witch friends have rolled their eyes at his quest. That’s one slight Shiff doesn’t much mind.
“Most of them [fellow witches] think I’m kind of wasting my time, that I’m not going to get anywhere,” he says. “They may be right. I may be ahead of my time. But eventually, society’s going to have to deal with this.”
skornhaber@ocweekly.com
This article appeared in print as "Toil and Trouble: Milo the witch loves his job at Ralphs. But a Halloween display compelled him to file a discrimination complaint."
