Trinity College Reinstates Professor Who Said White People Should ‘F***ing Die’

Four days after James T. Hodgkinson opened fire on a group of Republican congressmen at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, Trinity Professor Johnny Eric Williams sided with anonymous blogger “Son of Baldwin,” who proposed that black emergency personnel should let wounded white people die rather than lend assistance. Baldwin posted his opinions under the hashtag, #LetThemFuckingDie.

Professor Williams linked Son of Baldwin’s statement, adopted the hashtag as his own, and posted some additional denunciations of white Americans for “their destructive mythology of whiteness and their white supremacy system.” Referring to all “self-identified ‘whites,’” he wrote, “The time is now to confront these inhuman assholes and end this now.”

When Campus Reform broke the story on June 20, it rapidly spread through the media. Trinity College put Professor Williams on leave, beginning June 26.

But after Trinity Dean and Vice President Tom Cresswell reviewed Williams’ statements, he returned with a 31-page report that found his Facebook posts were “extramural utterances” protected by Trinity College’s policy of academic freedom. Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney endorsed Dean Cresswell’s findings, and added that she doesn’t “condone the hashtag” which “offend[s] me personally” and “contradicts our fundamental institutional values.” Nevertheless, Williams has been reinstated in good standing.

Trinity reached the decision because, like many other colleges, it has failed to draw meaningful lines between...Read More HERE