A longtime Rutgers University history professor could be facing disciplinary action after an investigation by the university concluded he violated its discrimination and harassment policy when he posted on Facebook that he hates white people, a comment he argues was “satirical.”
Rutgers’ decision, the professor says, threatens the tradition of academic freedom at public institutions. But the university argues it needs to maintain a discrimination-free environment.
The professor, James Livingston, a white man living in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, said he was commenting on gentrification in his neighborhood when he posted on Facebook on May 31. But the post was perceived as discriminatory by the university’s internal investigation.
“OK, officially, I now hate white people,” Livingston wrote. “I am a white people, for God’s sake, but can we keep them—us—us out of my neighborhood?”
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