A former professor from Pennsylvania State University filed a lawsuit in federal court in June alleging that he was subjected to racist attacks for being white after he objected to the university forcing him to teach students that white supremacy “manifests” in language and the teaching of writing, the Washington Examiner reported.
Former English professor Zach De Piero, who taught at Penn State’s Abington campus, is suing the university along with several current and former staffers after he was “singled out for ridicule and humiliation” for being white, according to the lawsuit.
De Piero alleges that after he complained to the director of the Affirmative Action Office about the constant racial insults directed at the white professors in the school’s writing department, he was told, “There is a problem with the White race,” the lawsuit said.
The director suggested to De Piero that he should continue attending “antiracist” workshops “until you get it” and that he may suffer from “mental health issues,” the lawsuit states.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, De Piero said he was forced out of the university for questioning Penn State’s anti-racist ideology. He explained that faculty are required to “move equity forward,” otherwise they are “perpetuating racist teaching practices.”
He said he was consistently given the message that the school is “hostile towards white individuals.”
According to the lawsuit, brought on De Piero’s behalf by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), the homepage for Penn State’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program includes resources like “White Rage” and “Me and White Supremacy” that further disseminate “racist tirades” against white students and faculty.
Calling the practice discrimination, De Piero told the Washington Examiner that if it humiliated him, other white faculty and students are probably also humiliated, but “they’re just too afraid to tell you.”
FAIR’s Leigh Ann O’Neill told the Washington Examiner that De Piero is bravely “standing up against the deleterious ideologies” invading the field of academics. She said De Piero’s “unlawful discrimination” is a “symptom of those ideologies” that are “eating away at the foundational principles” of open inquiry and equality.
