Market forces

By now, one supposes, the backlash should be in full cry, and from all the usual suspects. This is how it seems to work in this strange perverse age. You drop the N-word in the middle of a conference call, and your professional life blows up because of it, and you stand a good chance of becoming a martyr for  those who pine for the glorious good old days.

When, you know, you could fling the N-word around and no one would call you on it. Damn political correctness anyway -- except, of course, when someone on the political left calls a spade a spade where Our Only Available President is concerned.

I don't know good ol' Papa John Schnatter except by reputation, as a grandstanding blowhard who sells bad pizza, hates political protest by black football players and talked the usual alarmist CEO talk about Obamacare before admitting it was not actually going to be the end of his business after all. What I do know is he's no martyr.

He's simply a shining example of what many in America consider a bedrock principle: Market forces.

It isn't political correctness run amok, after all, that has triggered the fallout of the last week. Since it got out that Schnatter dropped the nuke of all racial slurs, team after team has dropped partnerships with Papa John's, the University of Louisville has disassociated itself from him and taken the company's name off its football stadium, and he's stepped down as CEO. The company has also taken his face off the company logo.

This is not because they're a bunch of over-reactive meanies. It's because he was costing them money.

The bottom line in all of this, see, is the bottom line. When Schnatter stepped down as CEO, Papa John's stock went up. When the company announced it was removing his face from the company logo, stocks rose another 3.1 percent.

In other words, Schnatter had become, not a martyr, but a financial liability. Stockholders don't like financial liabilities. Schnatter hangs around, the stock tanks. The company puts him on the sideline, the stock rises. And so ... sorry, John. Drop us a postcard sometime, won't you?

The encouraging thing about that: Despite all efforts by the current administration and congressional leadership to transport us back to the 1950s in the Wayback Machine, it's still 2018 out here. To be sure, racism and racist language remain far too pervasive in American society, and even emboldened by the Trumpian mindset.  But at the very least, we can now say it's bad for business.

You can call that political correctness if you like. Looks more like progress to me.