Former equity chief sues 'antiracist' college for race discrimination
Dr. Tabia Lee, a former equity director at California's De Anza Community College, discusses a lawsuit alleging she was called a 'White supremacist' for opposing critical race theory doctrine.
EXCLUSIVE — A Black equity director who worked at a taxpayer-backed California community college, accused her former employer of racial discrimination, retaliation and First Amendment violations after she committed thought crimes — "ideological discretion[s]" — that weren't in line with the administration's radical "antiracism," according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
The lawsuit, filed by the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR), said that De Anza Community College created a racially hostile environment for Dr. Tabia Lee and then fired her because she wasn't being "the right type of Black person." Namely, Lee did not support an extreme critical race theory agenda to "decenter whiteness."
Lee, as faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education, told Fox News Digital that she wanted people of all races, genders and sexual orientations to be included. She described witnessing minority groups — such as White gays and lesbians and Jews — being excluded from the "antiracist" mission.
"I was told that I was attempting to erase BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) voices and to whitewash the Office of Equity," Lee told Fox News Digital. "Accusations were made towards me and my integrity just for saying that space should be… welcoming to all students and all faculty as a resource."
Dr. Tabia Lee is suing De Anza Community College for alleged racial discrimination and First Amendment violations. (Fox News Digital )
Lee was accused of "Whitesplaining," being a "White supremacist" and "White talking," according to the allegations.
"I had never seen teachers or staff members at an educational institution engage in that kind of behavior," she told Fox. "I was disturbed… to have myself called and aligned by other people with hatred."
Lee added that when she asked her colleagues not to call her racial names, they began "acting like I was an enemy."
De Anza Community College's diversity, equity and inclusion mission is criticized for being ideologically driven by a former staff member. (Adobe Stock)
In addition to the alleged name-calling, Lee's views on tolerance were shut down during a meeting where it was discussed that White gays and lesbians did not feel welcome in an LGBTQ+ space called the "Women, Gender, and Sexuality Center."
According to the lawsuit, Francesca Caparas, an instructor and coordinator at the Center, allegedly said, "I am not trying to make this a space for White gays and lesbians. They have the whole campus already."
Santa Ana, the Program Coordinator who had accused Dr. Lee of "Whitesplaining," agreed, chiming in, "Our whole center is for people of color. That is our safe space we have made."
Faculty at the college allegedly excluded White LGBTQ individuals. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
When Lee tried to disagree with these points of view, it was explained to her that "White people or others who do not fit that definition are not welcome in the Office of Equity… or at the Center" the complaint stated.
Furthermore, when it came to raising the issue of anti-Semitism and Holocaust education, Lee was informed to back off of the endeavor because it wasn't "aligned with the focus on what they called 'decentering whiteness.'"
A pathway is seen leading to an observation and security tower between what were electric barbed wire fences inside the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz I in Oswiecim, Poland, on Dec. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
"Caparas stated that ‘we,’ meaning the whole De Anza administration, 'are intentionally decentering Whiteness here,'" the lawsuit said.
Lee said that she was pushed out of all her duties, and was unable to access the budget or start meetings. At one point, her emails went ignored. The suit alleged that when she formally complained, the college responded by firing her in retaliation.
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A spokesperson sent Fox News Digital a statement not addressing Lee's lawsuit but stating that all faculty members have "comprehensive due process."
"Foothill-De Anza Community College District has an obligation to protect privacy in personnel matters. Without commenting on any specific matter, we can share that faculty members have comprehensive due process and appeal rights both under the law and negotiated through their bargaining unit," the statement read.
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