By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


A well-known local Realtor was let go from his position after making social media comments concerning the Black Lives Matter movement.

Rick Beaudin, known to many as The Pinckney Pirate, was fired by ReMax Platinum owner Joe DeKroub on Friday. Beaudin worked as a Team Leader at the firm. DeKroub confirmed the firing when reached by phone, but declined to reveal the exact details of the comments. However, he said they were racial in nature and had drawn multiple complaints. “Deep down I don’t think Rick is a racist, but you need to be responsible for the things you say,” said DeKroub.

Beaudin tells WHMI that it was a single comment he made concerning a protest planned in Pinckney on Friday in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Beaudin says he posted to a local Pinckney group Facebook page “Can’t we all just promote in Pinckney that All Lives Matter?” He says the post was made from his personal Facebook account and was only up for about twenty minutes before it was removed by the page administrator. But Beaudin, who also serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Pinckney Putnam Hamburg Hell Chamber of Commerce, says that the Black Lives Matter movement contacted ReMax to complain and that was what caused his dismissal. “All I said was All Lives Matter, but I guess that’s politically incorrect and you’re not allowed to say All Lives Matter. But don’t All Lives Matter? I think they do and a lot of people think so too.”

Black Lives Matter activists and other say the phrase “All Lives Matter” is derogatory of their movement as it denies the racial component behind the killing of George Floyd and numerous other people of color by a predominantly-white law enforcement system they view as systematically racist.

The issue had been building for weeks, according to DeKroub, who said he had warned Beaudin several times to stop using ReMax-supplied Facebook pages to engage in conduct seen as detrimental to the company’s standards. “We are a real estate company. We cannot be perceived as having bias in any manner or that we don’t fully support fair housing.” DeKroub indicated Beaudin was not contrite when confronted on the issue. “It just got out of hand.”

Beaudin denies he was warned several times or that the company supplies Facebook pages. “Joe doesn’t even understand Facebook,” he said. He added that, “Nothing has been going on for weeks. Joe goes to Florida for the winter. He just got back in May. I have not seen him other than on group zoom training sessions - nor talked to him. Nobody went to the office because of Covid.” Beaudin also questioned why his firing was newsworthy. “People get fired all the time. Why is this news? I bleed Pinckney. That’s why I said ‘Why can’t Pinckney promote All Lives Matter?’” Beaudin later added, “I apologize if my ALL LIVES MATTER statement was taken wrong by anyone.”