A staffer at Smith College in Massachusetts said she is resigning from her position, saying the college has “created a racially hostile environment” while pushing for “social justice” initiatives.
Jodi Shaw, a white woman who describes herself as a lifelong liberal, said she turned down a settlement from the college so she can instead speak out, according to journalist Bari Weiss. The “hostile environment” was caused, in part, she added, due to so-called “anti-racist” programs in the college that allegedly target white employees.
“In this environment, people’s worth as human beings, and the degree to which they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, is determined by the color of their skin. It is an environment in which dissenting from the new critical race orthodoxy— or even failing to swear fealty to it like some kind of McCarthy-era loyalty oath—is grounds for public humiliation and professional retaliation,” Shaw wrote in her resignation letter, according to Weiss’s article.
In the meantime, she set up a GoFundMe page, which, according to her, has been “placed on hold” by the crowdfunding site. “I fear this is for ideological reasons.”
Shaw said Smith College, a small liberal arts school, increasingly pushed “trainings and programs grounded in Critical Social Justice,” which “posits a person’s immutable characteristics” such as race or gender “as more important than their individual character.”
Going further, Shaw said that her workplace subjects her to “additional scrutiny because of my skin color,” adding that she cannot work in a place in which “[her] personal feelings of discomfort under such scrutiny are not legitimate but instead are a manifestation of white supremacy.”
“This was an extremely difficult decision for me and comes at a deep personal cost. I make $45,000 a year; less than a year’s tuition for a Smith student. I was offered a settlement in exchange for my silence, but I turned it down. My need to tell the truth— and to be the kind of woman Smith taught me to be—makes it impossible for me to accept financial security at the expense of remaining silent about something I know is wrong. My children’s future, and indeed, our collective future as a free nation, depends on people having the courage to stand up to this dangerous and divisive ideology, no matter the cost,” Shaw concluded.
The Epoch Times reached out to Shaw and Smith College for comment.
Shaw has been publishing videos on her YouTube channel detailing what she describes as the creation of a hostile work environment at the Massachusetts college over the past three months.
Smith College President Kathleen McCartney issued a statement last year regarding Shaw’s videos.
“This employee does not speak for the college or any part of the college. Further, we believe the video mischaracterizes the college’s important, ongoing efforts to build a more equitable and inclusive living, learning and working environment,” she stated at the time, according to the College Fix. “The National Labor Relations Act protects employees who engage in concerted activities, including speech, with respect to workplace conditions,” McCartney added.
Weiss, for her part, resigned as an opinion writer for the New York Times due to what she described as a hostile work environment rife with bullying.