“They said they wanted a black person to do this job. Apparently, I am the wrong kind of black.” -Dr Tabia Lee
Dr. Tabia Lee was terminated from her position as the Faculty Director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice, & Multicultural Education at De Anza Community College, located in Cupertino, California after being accused of, amongst other things, “whitesplaning” and perpetuating “white supremacy”.
A lifelong educator, Lee says she has “always advocated multiple approaches in performing anti-racism work, which apparently from the get-go was perceived as a threat to what I now understand to be the critical social justice orthodoxy at De Anza…”
Dr. Lee is now suing the institution, accusing them of hindering her right to free speech after she believes she was targeted for not being the “right kind of Black person.”
Adam and Dr Lee pull the curtain back on DEI and how the orthodoxy of DEI on race both contaminates higher education and as Dr. Lee argues “deliberately stokes hatred toward Israel and the Jewish people.”
Explore the organization Free Black Thought that Lee co-founded, dedicated to free speech, civil rights, and a conviction that a pluralistic society committed to liberal democracy is nourished by the entire spectrum of black thinking on matters of politics, society, and culture. Can we get a hell yeah?
We loved the work they are doing at Free Black Thought so much, we invited their president, Erec Smith, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania whose primary work focuses on the rhetorics of anti-racist activism, theory, and pedagogy to join Adam in conversation! Look for his episode later this summer.
Lee entertained a divergent viewpoint. She questioned an orthodoxy. And it cost her her job. We support Dr. Lee in advocating for her constitutional rights and civil liberties, and we hope you do as well.
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Please, please, please register to vote if you have not already done so, and/or encourage everyone you know to do the same! Even if they don’t agree with you, because that’s democracy. www.vote.org
Dr Tabia Lee