A staff member at Smith College — a private, liberal arts school for women in Massachusetts — has resigned after claiming that the university created a “racially hostile environment” for her and other white employees. Jodi Shaw, a former student support coordinator at the school, claims that Smith has embraced an “anti-racist” agenda that is antagonistic toward white employees.
Shaw gave up her $45,000 per year salary and, reportedly, a settlement offer that was intended to keep her quiet about the issue.
Shaw, an alumna of Smith, resigned on Friday after more than two years of enduring the university’s commitment to new “anti racist” policies. On October 27 of last year, Shaw uploaded a YouTube video blowing the whistle on Smith’s anti-white racist policies. “I ask that Smith College stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling what I must think and feel about myself.” Shaw said in the video. “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.”
Shaw has made several more videos on the subject since that initial whistleblower video, meaning she was likely on the college’s radar concerning their anti-white policies.
In Shaw’s resignation letter, which was published by former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, Smith tells a far-too-common tale of a university frightened into critical-race-theory compliance, which was somehow meant to address “systemic racism” at the school.
“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. The student, who is black, shared her account of this incident widely on social media, drawing a lot of attention to the college,” Shaw recalled.
“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,” Shaw wrote.
Of course, ramping up the new “anti-racist” initiatives only made it appear that Smith was somehow guilty of “systemic racism,” despite the investigation’s finding that no racial bias occurred.
“This only served to support the now prevailing narrative that the incident had been racially motivated and that Smith staff are racist,” Shaw wrote.
According to Shaw, the university has created an atmosphere of fear among employees, where everything that occurs is viewed through the lens of racial politics. “Although I have spoken to many staff and faculty at the college who are deeply troubled by all of this, they are too terrified to speak out about it. This illustrates the deeply hostile and fearful culture that pervades Smith College.”
In January, Shaw described what she referred to her “last straw” with the college, which occurred while she was attending a mandatory staff retreat on racial issues. The facilitators in charge of the retreat asked staff members to respond to personal questions about race and racial identity. When Shaw told the facilitators, “I don’t feel comfortable talking about that,” the facilitators accused her of “white fragility.” Shaw was the only person present who chose not to speak on the subject.
“Later, the facilitators told everyone present that a white person’s discomfort at discussing their race is a symptom of ‘white fragility.’ They said that the white person may seem like they’re in distress, but that it’s actually a ‘power play.’ In other words, because I am white, my genuine discomfort was framed as an act of aggression. I was shamed and humiliated in front of my colleagues.”
In a letter to the Smith College community, college president Kathleen McCarthy denied that the college had created a “racially hostile environment for white people.” McCarthy accused Shaw of making several “misstatements” about the college’s policies on race.
According to McCarthy: “[Shaw’s] letter contains a number of misstatements about the college’s equity and inclusion initiatives, misstatements that are offensive to the members of our community who are working every day to create a campus where everyone, regardless of racial identity, can learn, work and thrive.”
Later in her letter, though, McCarthy spouts some of the same “anti-racist” talking points that Shaw appeared to be complaining about: “While it might be uncomfortable to accept that each of us, regardless of color or background, may have absorbed unconscious biases or at times acted in ways that are harmful to members of our community, such self-reflection is a prerequisite for making meaningful progress.”
It might also be uncomfortable for McCarthy to realize that Smith College has created an atmosphere where white employees must feel perpetual guilt for things that they haven’t done. True racism is not about any government or system — it’s a matter of the heart. You can’t fix racism with reverse racism, which is exactly what Smith College appears to be doing.
