2
0

Black student at Smith college lied about "racism", causing innocent workers massive problems


 invite response                
2021 Feb 25, 10:05pm   477 views  13 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9297475/Black-student-not-victim-racism-eating-black-80k-Smith-College.html

Student was not victim of racism for 'eating while black' at $80k Smith College and made up details that ruined the lives of four campus workers and led to controversial anti-bias training that employee resigned over
Oumou Kanoute claimed she was targeted in July 2018 for 'eating while black'
Kanoute was a student at the $80,000-a-year all women Smith College
She went into an empty cafeteria which was reserved for a summer school
Kanoute was seen by a janitor who reported someone in the closed canteen
He called security, as he was told to, and another janitor arrived to speak to her
That night Kanoute said on Facebook that she was made unwelcome at school
She said the cafe worker was racist for informing her the room was closed
In October 2018 independent investigators cleared all those involved
The cafe worker, who suffers from lupus, was hospitalized with stress
A janitor who was not present during the incident was forced from his job
One employee resigned Friday, citing a 'racially hostile environment'

An elite Massachusetts liberal arts college has quietly conceded that there was no truth to allegations of racism made by one of their students that 'ruined the lives' of numerous campus workers.

Oumou Kanoute was in the canteen at Smith College on July 31, 2018 when she claimed she was profiled for 'eating while black' after a security guard asked her what she was doing.

Kanoute, a psychology undergraduate student, posted video of the incident on social media and claimed that she was the victim of racism.

However, an independent law firm investigating the incident found that same year that there was no evidence of wrongdoing and cleared all those involved. The case has come to light again after an employee resigned from the school on Friday, citing a 'racially hostile environment.'

Kanoute had named staff online, causing one to be hospitalized with stress and another, a janitor who was not present, forced from his job.

Kanoute said the security guard may have been carrying a 'lethal weapon' when, in fact, he was unarmed.

As a result, Smith forced employees to attend seminars about unconscious bias.

Jodi Shaw, who worked for the residential life department, resigned from the school on February 19, citing a 'racially hostile environment.'

In October she began speaking out against the anti-bias training programs, and found a fervent YouTube following.

'I ask that Smith College stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling me what I must think and feel about myself,' she said.

'Stop presuming to know who I am or what my culture is based upon my skin color. Stop asking me to project stereotypes and assumptions onto others based on their skin color.

'Stop demanding that I admit to white privilege, and work on my so-called implicit bias as a condition of my continued employment.'

In her resignation letter, published on former New York Times editor Bari Weiss's substack, Shaw said everything changed with Kanoute's accusations.

Having graduated from Smith College herself, Shaw said she loved her job, 'but the climate — and my place at the college — changed dramatically when, in July 2018, the culture war arrived at our campus when a student accused a white staff member of calling campus security on her because of racial bias.'

She continued: 'Before even investigating the facts of the incident, the college immediately issued a public apology to the student, placed the employee on leave, and announced its intention to create new initiatives, committees, workshops, trainings, and policies aimed at combating 'systemic racism' on campus.

'In spite of an independent investigation into the incident that found no evidence of racial bias, the college ramped up its initiatives aimed at dismantling the supposed racism that pervades the campus.

'This only served to support the now prevailing narrative that the incident had been racially motivated and that Smith staff are racist.'

On the day of the incident, Kanoute, a 21-year-old who was raised in New York after her family emigrated from Mali, was in an empty canteen that was reserved for a summer camp program for young children.

Jackie Blair, a veteran cafeteria employee, mentioned to Kanoute that it was reserved for the summer school, and then decided to drop it, according to The New York Times.

A janitor, who was in his 60s and poor of sight, and had worked at Smith for 35 years, was emptying garbage cans when he saw a figure reclining and eating alone, in a far corner of the canteen which was supposed to be closed.

Campus police had advised staff to call security rather than confront strangers on their own, so the janitor called security.

'We have a person sitting there laying down in the living room,' the janitor told a dispatcher according to a transcript.

'I didn't approach her or anything but he seems out of place.'

A well-known older campus security officer drove over to the dorm where the cafeteria was situated, The Times recounted, and was accompanied by a campus police officer.

He recognized her as a student and they had a brief and polite conversation, which she recorded on video.

'Hi,' she says.

'How are you doing?' a man says.

'Good, how are you?' she replied.

'We were wondering why you were here,' he says.

'Oh, I was eating lunch, I'm working the summer program, so I was just relaxing on the couch.'

He replies: 'Oh, just taking a break. So you're with the program?'

'Yeah. I'm actually a TA,' she says.

He replies: 'Oh, so that's what it was. We just wondered.' ...

Hours later she wrote on Facebook: 'It's outrageous that some people question my being at Smith, and my existence overall as a woman of color.'

She said the officer, who could have been carrying a 'lethal weapon,' left her near 'meltdown'. (He was unarmed.)

Kanoute did not mention that Blair had already told her that the empty cafe was closed, except for the summer school students.

She wrote: 'I cannot even sit down and eat lunch peacefully.

'I did nothing wrong. I wasn't making a noise or bothering anyone. All I did was be black.'

Her case was seized upon.

The president of Smith College, Kathleen McCartney, responded the next day.

'I begin by offering the student involved my deepest apology that this incident occurred,' she wrote.

'And to assure her that she belongs in all Smith places.'

McCartney did not speak to the accused employees and put the janitor on paid leave that day.

Blair, the cafeteria worker, was emailed by a reporter at The Boston Globe asking her why she called security on Kanoute for 'eating while black.'

Blair was surprised, as she had had nothing to do with the call for security.

The next day she discovered that Kanoute had posted her photograph, name and email on Facebook, along with that of another janitor, Mark Patenaude, a 21-year veteran of Smith College, who was not even on site at the time of the July 31 incident.

She accused him of 'racist cowardly acts': he left his job not long after.

'I was accused of being the racist,' Patenaude told The New York Times.

'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 multiple training sessions about race and intersectionality at Smith after the incident, which he said left workers cynical. He left his job shortly after.

'I don't know if I believe in white privilege,' he said. 'I believe in money privilege.'

For Blair, the canteen worker, stress exacerbated her lupus and she checked into the hospital last year.

She was vilified on social media, and around campus. She tried to change jobs within the school, but the accusations of being racist followed her.

McCartney met with student government and black campus groups over tea to talk about the next steps the institution would take, such as the anti-bias training.

McCartney had previously struggled to find the right tone in the stridently 'woke' college.

In 2014, she moderated an alumnae discussion in New York on free speech. A white female panelist argued it was a mistake to ban Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because he used the N-word; the panelist then uttered the word in hopes, she said, of draining its power.

Students attacked McCartney for failing to denounce that panelist, and McCartney then requested forgiveness.

Later in 2014 she wrote to the college community, lamenting that grand juries had not indicted police officers in the deaths of black men, and commenting: 'All lives matter'.

She again apologized.

McCartney admitted to The New York Times that, when Kanoute made her complaint that summer, she was under great pressure to act.

'We always try to show compassion for everyone involved,' said McCartney.

On September 13, 2018, Kanoute upped the ante and wrote on the ACLU website: 'This summer, I was racially profiled - an all-too-common experience for Black people in America.' ...

Students staged a mass walk-out in support of Kanoute, and urged Smith College to do more to combat what they claimed was widespread systematic racism at the school.

Kanoute spoke to The Boston Globe for an article published on September 17, and said her new-found fame was tough to deal with. ...

Kanoute took legal representation from Carl Takei, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU asked Smith College to make changes to its policies, from how it handles police calls to mandatory, in-person, racial bias training for faculty, staff, and incoming students.

The ACLU has also asked Smith to create housing for black students who may want to live together - a longstanding request from black student groups.

On October 28, 2018, McCartney released a 35-page report from a law firm which was called in to investigate Kanoute's claim. Blair was cleared altogether, and the investigators found no sufficient evidence of discrimination by anyone else involved, including the janitor who called campus police.

McCartney began a program of anti-bias training, which many within the staff found intrusive and unhelpful.

'My perception is that if you're on the wrong side of issues of identity politics, you're not just mistaken, you're evil,' said James Miller, an economics professor at Smith College and a conservative.

'It is safe to say race is discussed far more often than class at Smith,' said Professor Marc Lendler, who teaches American government at the college.

'It's a feature of elite academic institutions that faculty and students don't recognize what it means to be elite.'

Lendler said the training for working-class employees risks becoming a kind of psychological bullying.

'My response would be, 'Unless it relates to conditions of employment, it's none of your business what I was like growing up or what I should be thinking of,' he said.

The janitor in his 60s has since returned to work, but Blair was furloughed and struggled to find another job, with one potential employer asking her: 'Aren't you the one involved in that incident?'

Comments 1 - 13 of 13        Search these comments

1   Patrick   2021 Feb 25, 10:06pm  

Patrick says
'I ask that Smith College stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling me what I must think and feel about myself,' she said.

'Stop presuming to know who I am or what my culture is based upon my skin color. Stop asking me to project stereotypes and assumptions onto others based on their skin color.

'Stop demanding that I admit to white privilege, and work on my so-called implicit bias as a condition of my continued employment.'


This is solid gold.
2   Patrick   2021 Feb 25, 10:30pm  

Another solid human being who will not be intimidated by the woke mob:

https://reclaimthenet.org/professor-suspended-for-tweets-criticizing-reparation/

A math professor at St. Joseph’s University, a private catholic university in Philadelphia, was suspended for tweets disagreeing with the idea of reparations for slavery. The professor, Gregory Manco, views the suspension as “cancel culture” and said he won’t back down because “we can’t live scared for being who we are.” ...

In one of the tweets shared, Manco argued against slavery reparations, saying, they were like the great-great-grandchild of a murder victim asking the great-great-grandchild of a convicted murdered for compensation. “Now, get this racist reparation bullshit out of your head for good,” Manco added in the tweet. ...

In the second tweet shared, Manco argued that racial bias training “divides us and worsens race relations.” ...

Manco was then put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. ...

In Manco’s opinion, the notice he received does not inspire confidence that there will be a fair investigation. ...

He also noted that the commentary added in the screenshots indicates “someone who is gleefully celebrating what they think will be another cancellation” not “someone who is genuinely hurt by my words.”

Speaking to The College Fix, Manco said the suspension was “an example of attempted cancel culture.” He added, “Whether the cancel occurs or not remains to be seen.”

On Twitter, Manco shared a screenshot of the university’s faculty handbook, which, like the American Association of University Professors standards on academic freedom, states if faculty members “speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline.”

As Manco awaits the university’s decision, he will fight.

“One thing is sure. I will not back down. The support I have gotten on Twitter is amazing. We can’t live scared anymore for being who we are.”


The guy is a mensch!
3   Hircus   2021 Feb 26, 10:36am  

The "rayciss white society that hates blackness" propaganda has clearly infected her deeply. That's why she felt compelled to lie and claim raycism at school, because she was certain their actions were either motivated by raycism, or that the employee certainly had contributed to raycism in the past, and so was deserving of punishment either way.

In this post you can tell she feels like she's standing up and fighting an oppressive force


Decent body, but her head looks male.
4   Karloff   2021 Feb 26, 10:49am  

So sick of these hate crime hoaxes. I swear 90%+ claims of "hate crimes" against minorities are false. Dishonest media acting as the megaphone for it every time.

These lying sacks of crap need to face a punishment equal to what their innocent targets would have endured. Media included.
5   Kepi   2021 Feb 26, 2:46pm  

Hircus says
The "rayciss white society that hates blackness" propaganda has clearly infected her deeply. That's why she felt compelled to lie and claim raycism at school, because she was certain their actions were either motivated by raycism, or that the employee certainly had contributed to raycism in the past, and so was deserving of punishment either way.


Or maybe the thing has just enough sense to know it is repulsive, and doesn't like it, and will act back in any silly way it can think of.

The affirmations speak for themselves.

I suspect the first draft went as such:

"I am beautiful?
My black skin is nature's way of signaling “DANGER! STAY AWAY!”
My “big nose” is nauseating.
My “big fat lips” are cringe worthy.
My kinky short “hair” is not anywhere close to human hair. It is a nappy Brillo pad kind of substance (weaves fool only the gullible).
Everything about my blackness is beautiful?, oh, except for the fact it is not. That must be why society instinctively knows that it is not, I know I am, I know w....

Plus, I am a male! What da Fuk!"




"Sheet! Somebody done got to pay!"
6   Robert Sproul   2021 Feb 26, 6:39pm  

The poor thing would probably have been better off if her parents had never immigrated to this hideously racist country.
I know for sure we would be better off if they were all still in Mali.
7   HeadSet   2021 Feb 27, 8:44am  

Hircus says
The "rayciss white society that hates blackness" propaganda has clearly infected her deeply. That's why she felt compelled to lie and claim raycism at school, because she was certain their actions were either motivated by raycism, or that the employee certainly had contributed to raycism in the past, and so was deserving of punishment either way.

Yes, but I think the big motivation is the new gold star status of being a "victim." As a victim, she can see herself as a hero fighting evil and overcoming odds, and not as the haughty over-privileged individual she actually is.
8   Robert Sproul   2021 Feb 27, 11:05am  

HeadSet says
the new gold star status of being a "victim."

Yup, racist affronts and assaults on their Black Personhood and Black Bodies must be how they garner esteem and honor in their Whacko Woke World. If it never actually happens to them they are forced to concentrate on tiny micro “incidents” (Lord knows I endure a boat load of micro-aggressions in the course of a day in this un-civil society) or they are just forced to go ahead and make some shit up out of desperation.
9   HeadSet   2021 Feb 27, 2:08pm  

Karloff says
These lying sacks of crap need to face a punishment equal to what their innocent targets would have endured. Media included.

Yes, like what occurred when Sandman was slandered. Would love to know what the CNN settlement was.
10   HeadSet   2021 Feb 27, 2:21pm  

Hircus says
The "rayciss white society that hates blackness" propaganda has clearly infected her deeply.

Oh, really. I bet back in Mali the men find her Black attributes appealing. In fact, I would say those same Black men may find European women to be too pale, have stringy hair like an ape, too narrow a nose, have odd serpentine eyes, and missing lips. Those Black men must therefore be "racist." What that girl actually wants is to force White American men to consider sub-Saharan Black traits "beautiful." I like the idea that each person is free to choose how they like.
11   FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden   2021 Feb 27, 3:51pm  

All women college = fucking drama!
12   Patrick   2021 Feb 27, 10:14pm  

Kepi says
Or maybe the thing has just enough sense to know it is repulsive, and doesn't like it, and will act back in any silly way it can think of.


Black women are invariably rated the least attractive of all women by whatever objective metric you choose, such as number of responses in online dating apps.

In 2014, user data on OkCupid showed that most men on the site rated black women as less attractive than women of other races and ethnicities.


This is no doubt difficult on the ego.

Similarly, Asian men fell at the bottom of the preference list for most women.


You don't hear them complaining though.

https://www.datingadvice.com/online-dating/online-dating-race-statistics
13   RC2006   2021 Feb 28, 6:57am  

Patrick says
Similarly, Asian men fell at the bottom of the preference list for most women.


You don't hear them complaining though.


Asain men at least have intelligence and can make money. All black women have is a bad attitude.

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions