A black director of a “woke” California college’s Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education claims she was fired for questioning the institution’s anti-racism “orthodoxy” and what the term “anti-racism” even means.
Dr. Tabia Lee said De Anza College, a community college in Cupertino, retaliated after she objected to several campus policies aimed at inclusion.
“I was working in a California community college, and I noticed that there was a lot of resistance to my even asking questions about anti-racism, policy efforts, and language,” Lee told the nonprofit Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.
“And I just purely wanted to know what folks meant when they were using those terms. And I encountered a lot of hostility a lot of resistance to me even asking questions.”
She told Higher Ed she was canned after declining to join a “socialist network,” objected to the college’s land acknowledgments for an Indigenous tribe, and questioned why the word “Black” was capitalized but not “white.”
Additionally, Additionally, Lee said she refused to use the gender-neutral terms “Latinx” and “Filipinx” because of her belief they only fuel racism.
“I find that the same toxic ideologies around race ideologies are now being advanced under gender ideologies,” Lee said, according to the outlet.
“I also find that the constant obsession with pronouns and declaration of pronouns causes deep discomfort for individuals who identify as gender fluid or who struggle with gender dysphoria.”
A colleague of Lee’s also accused the black faculty member of “white speaking,” “whitesplaining” and supporting white supremacy.
The school has a very different reason for firing Lee, however.
In a letter obtained by Higher Ed, district chancellor Judy Miner wrote Lee showed a “persistent inability to demonstrate cooperation in working with colleagues and staff” and an “unwillingness to accept constructive criticism.”
De Anza College voted Tuesday not to re-employ Lee, who started at the school in 2021, for the next academic year.
Lee claims she felt backlash from administrators shortly after she started the position.
They finally saw a reason to fire her when she published a Feb. 18 essay published in “Journal of Free Black Thought” stating: “Under the banner of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, in many learning environments a neo-reconstructionist race(ist) orthodoxy has emerged that actively works to suppress and exclude alternative frameworks, methods, ways and means for dealing with American education’s race(ist) problem.”
The school did not immediately return a request for comment.