NJ college: Professor fired for racially insensitive remarks
NEWARK » A New Jersey community college has fired an adjunct professor after officials say she made racially insensitive comments on Fox News.
Essex County College’s president announced the decision Friday, two weeks after Lisa Durden’s appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
College officials said they received complaints about Durden’s interview with Carlson. Durden, who is black, discussed a Memorial Day event held exclusively for black people hosted by a Black Lives Matter group.
When Carlson asked her thoughts, Durden interrupted the host, saying: “Boo hoo hoo. You white people are angry because you couldn’t use your white privilege card” to attend the event.
The show aired June 6, and the school suspended Durden with pay two days later. She addressed the matter during a public meeting Tuesday with school officials, but was soon fired.
Essex County College President Anthony Munroe said the school “supports and affirms the right of free speech and independent views and expressions of those views” for faculty and staff. He also noted that although Durden did not mention her affiliation with the school during her television appearance or claim to be representing its views, “her employment with us and potential impact on students required our immediate review into what seemed to have become a very contentious and divisive issue.”