St. Joseph’s prof placed on paid leave after criticizing reparations
A professor at St. Joseph’s University was placed on paid leave after expressing his views about racial reparations.
The professor told Campus Reform that the allegations are "silly" and his “policy stances do not show racial bias, but the opposite.”
A professor at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia was placed on paid leave after expressing his views about racial reparations on his personal Twitter account.
Gregory Manco, a mathematics professor and volunteer baseball coach at St. Joseph’s, came under fire for criticizing the notion of racial reparations. After a Twitter user using the moniker “karl marx” pointed out his comments on February 19, the school’s official Twitter account said it they would look into the remarks immediately.
”Suppose your great-great-grandfather murdered someone. The victim’s great-great-grandson knocks on your door, shows you the newspaper clipping from 1905, and demands compensation from you. Your response?” Manco’s tweet criticizing reparations stated. “Now get this racist reparation bulls**t out of your head for good.”
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are looking into this immediately.
— Saint Joseph’s University (@saintjosephs) February 19, 2021
Hours after the university became aware of the remarks, Manco received an email from Chief Human Resources Officer Zenobia Hargust.
The email said that the school had “received several complaints regarding online postings that were allegedly made by you and are of a biased or discriminatory nature.” Citing concerns about impacts on students in the classroom, Manco was immediately placed on “paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of an external investigation.”
[RELATED: Smith College staffer who spoke out against Critical Race Theory resigns, citing ‘racially hostile’ environment, ‘culture war’]
This leave included Manco’s roles as a professor and as a volunteer baseball coach.
On February 21, Manco described the situation on his Twitter page.
“Even if you don’t know me by name, you may know that I am a fulltime mathematics professor and also a baseball coach,” he explained. “You also know that I am a passionate advocate of reason, individualism, and laissez-faire capitalism.”
Twitter friends,
It appears that cancel culture is now knocking on my door. In advance of a school newspaper article, I wanted to share my thoughts here in a way that they would be unfiltered.
THREAD— South Jersey Giants (@SouthJerzGiants) February 21, 2021
Manco called accusations about his racial bias “silly,” as his “policy stances do not show racial bias, but the opposite.”
Citing earlier tweets celebrating Black History Month and appreciating accomplished African-Americans, Manco said that the posts were “deliberately ignored by this person who wanted to establish a false narrative, because that narrative would have been thoroughly discredited.”
These here were brought to my attention (including one retweet of someone else); it includes additional commentary added at the bottom, presumably by the person trying to ruin me: pic.twitter.com/Ahd0aDXEPm
— South Jersey Giants (@SouthJerzGiants) February 21, 2021
On February 23, Manco told Campus Reform that his students were notified that he would not return for the remainder of the spring semester.
[RELATED: URI students want professor ‘White-List,’ threaten to sue if next president isn’t Black]
Campus Reform reached out to St. Joseph’s University for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft
