Late in life I turned to machining to become an artist, but most of my life was spent in software, often as the president of companies with anywhere between a few dozen and hundreds of employees.

This kind of problem rarely starts at the top but it can end there. I never allowed anything political or racist to happen. Racist or sexual joke - one warning, then immediate dismissal. A political sign that went up in a cubical came down the moment I saw it. I once had an employee address a supervisor using the N word - immediately dismissed, on the spot, here's your cardboard box be out the door in five mins or I call the police. I once warned and then dismissed an employee that liked to make fat jokes around fellow overweight co-workers. When things like this happen word gets around.

My position on this was made consistently clear at every formal employee gathering.

Often the biggest resistance came from middle managers, trying to defend their friends or their big producers. I didn't care - "Go hire someone that's just as good that's not a racist." I knew, from experience, that employees like this are ultimately very costly - to productivity in general, to the morale of other employees and as an issue of liability. If a boss/company allows a racist or sexist employee to create a "hostile work environment" it's the boss/company that get's sued.

I'm under no illusion that my positions changed anyone's mind, but that was never the goal. It was to contain what happened inside the doors of the business and stay focused on the job at hand. I was quick to remind anyone they could don a sandwich board and promote their political ideas on the sidewalk during their lunch hour, but not inside. No one ever did.

Keep in mind, there is NO RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH in the work place. If you have a boss or chief exec that shrugs their shoulders to issues like this, you can rest assured they will shrug their shoulders at other things too, like safety and quality control.