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A former diversity director at a California community college claims she was fired after being told she wasn't the "right type of Black person" for the role, according to a lawsuit.
Dr. Tabia Lee, who is Black, said she was accused of "Whitesplaining" and called a "White supremacist" as she attempted to implement changes as the faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education at De Anza College, per Fox News.
"I was charged with leading an institution-wide transformation around those three issues," Lee told The Faulkner Focus. "So, in order to lead any kind of transformative effort, one of the things you have to do is encourage people to think critically and engage people in dialog and to uncover, you know, what are the needs in that space."
"When I interviewed for the position, I told them what my approach was, that I really seek to bring people together to identify points of commonality, to encourage critical thinking, and all the things they were on board with that critical independent thinking," she added.
When Lee attempted to include White LGBT people and Jewish people in the college's "anti-racist" mission, she said she was accused of "White talking" and ousted from her role as diversity director.
"Those are things that in my 40-year career as an educator, I had never heard teachers calling each other things like that or myself never referred to in those ways," Lee said.
A lawsuit filed by the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) alleges De Anza Community College created a racially hostile environment for Lee and fired her because she wasn't "the right type of Black person."
"I was told that I was attempting to erase BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) voices and to whitewash the Office of Equity," Lee told Fox News. "Accusations were made towards me and my integrity just for saying that space should be … welcoming to all students and all faculty as a resource."
When she raised the issue of antisemitism and Holocaust education, Lee said she was told the endeavor wouldn't be "aligned with the focus on what they called 'decentering whiteness.'"
In a statement, a spokesperson for the college said all faculty members have "comprehensive due process."
"Foothill-De Anza Community College District has an obligation to protect privacy in personnel matters. Without commenting on any specific matter, we can share that faculty members have comprehensive due process and appeal rights both under the law and negotiated through their bargaining unit," the statement reads.
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