A former student of Smith College and employee who refused to buy into the false notion that all whites are racist now has a GoFundMe page.
A New York Times article states that a female student lied and everybody assumed what she said was true. An investigation proved otherwise.
But by then, innocent people — who are still being subjected to abuse by the university — were hurt.
The Story
A student said she was racially profiled while eating in a college dorm. It wasn’t true, but the damage was done.
Smith College’s investigation found no evidence of bias.
“In the months to come, they announced a raft of anti-bias training for all staff, a revamped and more sensitive campus police force, and the creation of dormitories — as demanded by Ms. Kanoute and her A.C.L.U. lawyer — set aside for Black students and other students of color.”
“But they did not offer any public apology or amends to the workers whose lives were gravely disrupted by the student’s accusation.”
The media was no longer interested and did not correct their reporting.
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GO DEEPER
This is paraphrased from the NY Times:
Blatant timidity, irrationality, injustice, and cowardice in the face of exaggerate or false claims continued at Smith.
“The atmosphere at Smith is gaining attention nationally, in part because a recently resigned employee of the school, Jodi Shaw, has attracted a fervent YouTube following by decrying what she sees as the college’s insistence that its white employees, through anti-bias training, accept the theory of structural racism.”
“Stop demanding that I admit to white privilege, and work on my so-called implicit bias as a condition of my continued employment,” Ms. Shaw, who is also a 1993 graduate of Smith and who worked in the residential life department, said in one of her videos. After months of clashing with the administration, Ms. Shaw resigned last week and appears likely to sue the school, calling it a “racially hostile workplace.”
No Due Process
A well-known older campus security officer drove over to the dorm. He recognized Ms. Kanoute as a student and they had a brief and polite conversation, which she recorded. He apologized for bothering her and she spoke to him of her discomfort: “Stuff like this happens way too often, where people just feel, like, threatened.”
That night Ms. Kanoute wrote a Facebook post: “It’s outrageous that some people question my being at Smith and my existence overall as a woman of color.”
The janitor was put on paid leave that day.
It didn’t end there. Three weeks after the incident at Tyler House, Ms. Blair, the cafeteria worker, received an email from a reporter at The Boston Globe asking her to comment on why she called security on Ms. Kanoute for “eating while Black.” That puzzled her; what did she have to do with this?
The food services director called the next morning. “Jackie,” he said, “you’re on Facebook.” She found that Ms. Kanoute had posted her photograph, name and email, along with that of Mr. Patenaude, a 21-year Smith employee and janitor.
“This is the racist person,” Ms. Kanoute wrote of Ms. Blair, adding that Mr. Patenaude too was guilty. (He in fact worked an early shift that day and had already gone home at the time of the incident.) Ms. Kanoute also lashed the Smith administration. “They’re essentially enabling racist, cowardly acts.”
Ms. Blair has lupus, a disease of the immune system, and stress triggers episodes. She felt faint. “Oh my God, I didn’t do this,” she told a friend. “I exchanged a hello with that student and now I’m a racist.”
Without Facts, They Verbally Assaulted the Innocent
Within days of being accused by Ms. Kanoute, she said, she found notes in her mailbox and taped to her car window. “RACIST” read one. People called her at home. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” a caller said. “You don’t deserve to live,” said another.
Smith College put out a short statement noting that Ms. Blair had not placed the phone call to security but did not absolve her of broader responsibility. The college president Kathleen McCartney called her and briefly apologized. That apology was not made public.
By September, a chill had settled on the campus. Students walked out of autumn convocation in solidarity with Ms. Kanoute. The Black Student Association wrote to the president saying they “do not feel heard or understood. We feel betrayed and tokenized.”
Smith officials pressured Ms. Blair to go into mediation with Ms. Kanoute. “A core tenet of restorative justice,” Ms. McCartney wrote, “is to provide people with the opportunity for willing apology, forgiveness and reconciliation.”
Ms. Blair declined. “Why would I do this? This student called me a racist and I did nothing,” she said.
The Investigations Showed There Was No Bias
On Oct. 28, 2018, Kathleen McCartney released a 35-page report from a law firm with a specialty in discrimination investigations. The report cleared Ms. Blair altogether and found no sufficient evidence of discrimination by anyone else involved, including the janitor who called campus police.
Still, Ms. McCartney said the report validated Ms. Kanoute’s lived experience, notably the fear she felt at the sight of the police officer. “I suspect many of you will conclude, as did I,” she wrote, “it is impossible to rule out the potential role of implicit racial bias.”
There Was No Pattern of Discrimination But Innocents Suffered
The report said Ms. Kanoute could not point to anything that supported the claim she made on Facebook of a yearlong “pattern of discrimination.”
There were critical race training sessions. The college has set up “White Accountability” groups where faculty and staff are encouraged to meet on Zoom and explore their biases, although faculty attendance has fallen off considerably.
The janitor who called campus security quietly returned to work after three months of paid leave and declined to be interviewed. The other janitor, Mr. Patenaude, who was not working at the time of the incident, left his job at Smith not long after Ms. Kanoute posted his photograph on social media, accusing him of “racist cowardly acts.”
Unsurprisingly, the Liar Continued to Lie
“I was accused of being the racist,” Mr. Patenaude said. “To be honest, that just knocked me out. I’m a 58-year-old male, we’re supposed to be tough. But I suffered anxiety because of things in my past and this brought it to a whole ’nother level.”
He recalled going through one training session after another in race and intersectionality at Smith. He said it left workers cynical. “I don’t know if I believe in white privilege,” he said. “I believe in money privilege.”
As for Ms. Blair, the cafeteria worker, stress exacerbated her lupus and she checked into the hospital last year. After the Floyd death, angry notes and accusations of racism were again left in her mailbox and by visitors on Smith College’s official Facebook page.
Another Innocent Was Punished
This past autumn the university furloughed her and other workers, citing the coronavirus and the empty dorms. Ms. Blair applied for an hourly job with a local restaurant. The manager set up a Zoom interview, she said, and asked her: “‘Aren’t you the one involved in that incident?’”
“I was pissed,” she said. “I told her I didn’t do anything wrong, nothing. And she said, ‘Well, we’re all set.’”
She talked to a reporter recently from a neighbor’s backyard, as a couple of hens wandered the patio.
“What do I do?” she asked, shaking her head. “When does this racist label go away?”
Hugh Hewitt noted on Twitter: “I don’t think Smith is unique in facing this sort of controversy. In fact, I suspect most “elite” colleges are already in one or on the brink of one.
The student should have been expelled.
Smith College rewarded the liar and defamer, comforting her for vicious lies. The innocent people were traumatized and penalized. This is the new Democrat justice.
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