Woke California college fires DEI director
Dr. Tabia Lee explains what happened when she was fired and said she was accused of being a "White supremacist."
A Black equity director who was fired from a California community college has filed a lawsuit in which she alleges she was called a "White supremacist" and accused of "Whitesplaining" for questioning some of the institution's inclusion policies.
Former De Anza College employee Dr. Tabia Lee told "The Faulkner Focus" she was doing her due diligence as faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education but instead was labeled uncooperative.
"I was charged with leading an institution-wide transformation around those three issues," Lee said Monday of her job description. "So, in order to lead any kind of transformative effort, one of the things you have to do is encourage people to think critically and engage people in dialog and to uncover, you know, what are the needs in that space."
"When I interviewed for the position, I told them what my approach was, that I really seek to bring people together to identify points of commonality, to encourage critical thinking, and all the things they were on board with that critical independent thinking."
Universities have increasingly moved toward implementing DEI at every level at the institution. (Fox News Digital / File)
Lee told Fox News Digital she witnessed minority groups – such as White gays and lesbians and Jews – being excluded from the "anti-racist" mission at the taxpayer-funded college.
Lee said she was then accused of "Whitesplaining," of being a "White supremacist" and of "White talking" for her views on tolerance and was pushed out of all her duties. The suit alleges that when she formally complained, the college responded by firing her in retaliation.
"Those are things that in my 40-year career as an educator, I had never heard teachers calling each other things like that or myself never referred to in those ways," Lee said.
In a letter obtained by Inside Higher Ed, the university said Lee was let go due to a "Persistent inability to demonstrate cooperation in working with colleagues and staff … unwillingness to accept constructive criticism."
Lee said the firing does not represent the work she has done as an educator: "It doesn't reflect any objective reality or any of the work I was doing with countless colleagues, collaborators and partners, and the people who had finally started coming out and working with the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education under my leadership because of the inclusive way I approached my work."
The lawsuit, filed by the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR), says De Anza Community College created a racially hostile environment for Lee and then fired her because she wasn't "the right type of Black person." Namely, Lee did not support an extreme critical race theory agenda to "decenter whiteness."
"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."
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 antisemitism and Holocaust education, Lee was informed to back off the endeavor because it wasn't "aligned with the focus on what they called 'decentering whiteness.'"
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A spokesperson sent Fox News Digital a statement that said 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 reads.
The university did not respond to a request for comment from "The Faulkner Focus."
Fox News' Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.
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