NORTHAMPTON — A former Smith College employee who alleges administrators created a racially hostile environment against white people has filed a federal lawsuit urging a judge to end the college’s anti-bias training practices and award her damages after she severed her employment.
Jodi Shaw sued Smith College and two former Residence Life department supervisors in U.S. District Court in Springfield on Thursday, accusing them of fostering “a toxic climate of racial fear, hostility, and exclusion … that distorts all whites into malevolent oppressors and all people of color into hapless victims.” She resigned from her job in Residence Life in February.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial on nine counts, including racial discrimination and illegal retaliation. Shaw is suing for unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, and to “eliminate any and all policies, customs, and/or practices at Smith College that single out, segregate, scapegoat, or stereotype ‘white people’ or any other race,” including its anti-bias staff training courses and seminars.
“We are aware of Ms. Shaw’s latest lawsuit, which arises from allegations that were fully and independently investigated over a year ago, with no finding that Smith College discriminated or retaliated against Ms. Shaw in any way,” the college said in a written statement on Monday. “As this is pending litigation, we will not comment further, except to state that the college will continue to defend against her latest claims.”
Shaw is represented by attorneys including David Pivtorak of Los Angeles and Jonathan O’Brien of New York, both of whom are listed on the website of the CRT Attorney Coalition, which bills itself as “representing Americans who have been injured by the bigotry of Critical Race Theory.”
“Although the things that happened to Jodi at Smith College would shock the conscience of the average American, we must realize that ritualized racial humiliation and open discrimination in the pursuit of ‘equity’ are becoming normalized in the workplace,” Pivtorak said in a statement provided by Shaw. “Jodi recognized this and spoke out when no one else had the guts to do so and had her life destroyed as a result.”
Shaw started at Smith in 2017 as a temporary library employee and earned a full-time position by 2018. She claims in her lawsuit that her library supervisors denied her “significant career advancement” based on her race and that they canceled a 2018 student orientation program that featured Shaw rapping because she is white and the performance could be viewed as cultural appropriation.
She alleges that a racially hostile environment caused her to resign from the library and seek a position in Residence Life, where she experienced more discrimination and was required to participate in the school’s anti-bias training sessions.
The ongoing conflict gained national prominence and Shaw appeared on the Fox News program “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in November 2020 to detail her accusations. Her resignation in February 2021 spawned an article in Rolling Stone magazine that dubbed her an “anti-cancel culture hero.”
Previous complaint
The college has addressed many of Shaw’s allegations before.
Shaw filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in February, and the college responded in writing in May.
“(Shaw) claims that by offering trainings and educational opportunities that encouraged staff to consider the social identities of colleagues and students, the College was somehow forcing her to discriminate against others based on race,” Smith College’s response reads. “Nothing could be further from the truth… Ms. Shaw mistakes education for indoctrination.”
In March 2020, Shaw filed a grievance with Smith College, which employed an outside investigator to review her claims. The investigator found that Shaw was not subjected to discrimination.
“It is worth noting that all of Jodi’s white colleagues, and colleagues of color, reject her allegation that the conduct about which she complains was severe and pervasive, or that the conduct interfered with their ability to fulfill their job responsibilities,” the investigator’s report reads. “Said another way, Jodi is the only person in the department who is uncomfortable talking about and considering race.”
Conflict since 2018
The legal saga began in the wake of an unrelated incident on July 31, 2018. A Smith employee called campus police on a Black student worker who was on her lunch break in a residence hall. The employee said the student seemed to be “out of place” and an unarmed officer responded. The officer found there was no threat and did not file a report, according to administrators.
The college faced widespread scrutiny over its response to the incident; Shaw claims that, as administrators worked to address the crisis, it discriminated against her and other white people and allowed for the creation of a racially hostile environment against white staff.
Smith College president Kathleen McCartney announced that every staff member would be required to participate in mandatory anti-bias training starting in the fall of 2018, while an independent investigation conducted by an outside law firm determined that there was no bias involved in the incident.
In her lawsuit, Shaw alleges racially discriminatory comments and behaviors in the anti-bias training and among her supervisors. Smith College wrote in its response to the MCAD complaint that her “claims are based on her perception that she suffered disparate treatment and a hostile work environment based on her race. The law, however, requires more than subjective belief.”
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.