CANCELED: Counting down 2020's most shocking 'cancel culture' stories
The year 2020 was the year of the coronavirus pandemic, racial unrest, and racial unrest.
Just as the pandemic and racial unrest had a significant impact on campus life, so too did cancel culture.
Campus Reform is counting down the 20 most shocking cancel culture stories of 2020.
Here are the first 10 examples. Check back for the rest of the stories that made this year's list.
1. Dean fired after saying ‘EVERYONE’S LIFE MATTERS’ in email
The nursing school dean at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell was fired after sending an email to students including the phrase “Everyone’s life matters.” After students aired their frustrations over social media and to the school’s administration, the school decided to end Leslie Neal-Boylan’s employment.
2. UNT fired professor over this, lawsuit alleges
Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nathaniel Hiers, who was fired by the University of North Texas after he made a joke regarding microaggressions. ADF said that Hiers’ speech is “protected” and therefore his First Amendment rights were violated.
3. UCLA lecturer’s job in jeopardy after refusing ‘accommodations’ for black students
One UCLA lecturer is in danger of losing his job after refusing a student’s request to give Black students special privileges. An online petition circulated, garnering more than 20,000 signatures, calling for Gordon Klein to be fired for his “inappropriate response.”
Klein was placed on leave, and UCLA reassigned his class to other faculty members.
4. Profs demand university police chief resign after seeing Blue Lives Matter flag in his office
During a diversity Zoom meeting, students and professors at West Virginia University were outraged to see their university police chief had a thin blue line flag in the background. Even though he apologized and offered to take it down, the faculty still wanted him to resign or be fired.
5. Students want prof fired for allegedly falling asleep during anti-racism zoom call
Marymount Manhattan University Professor Patricia Simon was accused of falling asleep during an anti-racism Zoom event. A petition calling for her to be fired garnered more than 2,000 signatures. Simon, however, claimed she never fell asleep and that the picture was taken “without permission when I was looking down or briefly resting my Zoom weary eyes with my head tilted back which I must do in order to see my computer screen through my trifocal progressive lenses...”
6. Conservative prof says he’s being targeted for not supporting Black Lives Matter agenda
A Cornell University professor said he was targeted by his colleagues for not supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. In two opinion editorials, William Jacobson explained how BLM was created, and the group’s progressive agenda. This caused numerous faculty members to express their outrage, and called for him to be fired.
7. Dean censored over ‘Wuhan Virus’ op-ed slams ‘far-left’ academia
Retiring dean Mark Herring at Winthrop University in South Carolina was accused of being a white supremacist after criticizing his school and China over COVID-19. He expressed in a column for a library academic journal his thoughts on the virus and China. Students and faculty reacted angrily, calling the op-ed xenophobic and calling for him to be held accountable.
8. Prof cleared of ‘racist’ behavior banned from campus a YEAR after investigation
One Virginia Commonwealth University professor was cleared of any wrongdoing after a year-long investigation. Javier Tapia was accused of racist actions after calling campus security on a fellow professor. That professor claimed that Tapia called security on her because she is Black. However, Tapia said she looked very young to be a professor and thought she was a student who came into the “faculty only area.”
9. Prof refuses ‘required’ diversity training, says job in jeopardy as a result
Converse College in South Carolina mandated diversity training for its faculty. One professor refused to participate, however, prompting the school to threaten to fire him if he did not complete the training. Professor Jeffrey Poelvoorde said, “I do not tell President Newkirk or Provost Barker what to read or watch or think. I demand the same respect from them.”
University of Pittsburgh Professor Norman Wang lost his title of program director of an important medical fellowship after writing in an academic journal that the medical field should not consider race when determining entrance to the field.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @EcstaticPatriot
