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‘Could some white women at Evergreen come and collect Heather Heying’s racist ass’
One of the downsides of so-called family newspapers is they censor profanity in quotes.
That’s why you can’t get a sense of Naima Lowe’s contempt for her white colleagues at Evergreen State College by reading about her departure in The Olympian.
Spokesperson Zach Powers said Lowe’s departure last week was a condition of her $240,000 settlement with the Washington state college to resolve her tort claim for discrimination and a hostile work environment. She had been on leave since the start of the academic year because of “online attacks” against her that escalated over the summer.
Former professors Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, whose objection to the school’s anti-white “Day of Absence” provoked the mob rule that engulfed campus this spring, earlier received $500,000 to settle their similar tort claim, though their antagonists confronted them in person.
MORE: Veteran Evergreen State employee resigns over illegal spending
Unlike another recently departed colleague who tangled specifically with Weinstein, Rashida Love, Lowe’s objections were sprayed broadly across all white professors.
The “performance artist” made a spectacle of herself this May when she cursed out white colleagues in front of the library for being insufficiently supportive of student activists who menaced Weinstein and anyone considered to support him. Just one of many insulting lines:
YOU are now those motherfuckers that we’re pushing against!
You can’t see your way outta your own ass!
MORE: Watch Lowe’s profanity-laced tirade against white colleagues
It’s hard to see the professors castigated by Lowe as obvious supporters of Weinstein and Heying: A huge chunk of faculty called for Weinstein to be disciplined for airing the college’s dirty laundry.
As The College Fix reported when Weinstein and Heying settled, based on documents in their tort claim:
The couple, and especially Weinstein, was frequently called racist by peers in emails. Colleagues were upset the couple would not support the plans to elevate faculty on the basis of race, or support the “Day of Absence,” in which white people were asked to remain off campus for one day in April so students and faculty of color could commiserate about oppression and similar topics.
That claim also included emails and screenshots of hostility toward the married couple by their peers. One was Lowe herself, who wrote on Facebook: “Oh lord, could some white women at Evergreen come and collect Heather Heying’s racist ass. Jesus.”
Provost Jennifer Drake (“she/her pronouns”) announced Lowe’s departure in an email to faculty obtained by The Fix. It doesn’t disclose her tort claim or settlement, simply saying she “elected to resign”:
I want to recognize Naima’s many contributions to the College and thank her for her years of teaching and service on behalf of Evergreen. Naima joined the College in 2010 as a film and experimental media faculty member, and has taught regularly in media studies and film production as well as in interdisciplinary programs in cultural studies, feminist and queer theory, race, and decolonial studies. Naima is also a talented filmmaker and multi-media artist whose work has received regional and national recognition, and been exhibited at festivals, museums, and galleries across the country. Her work with students was theoretically rich, deeply creative, and transformative for those who studied with her. Naima also developed strong relationships with many staff and faculty, and we wish her the best in her future endeavors.
It’s not clear whether praising Lowe to her former colleagues was a condition of the settlement.
Campus Reform also notes that Lowe condemned white gays at the local gay rights parade in 2015, saying the “assimilationist motherfucking gays took over the movement with their assimilationist goals.”
Other Evergreen departures in the Day of Absence aftermath include its police chief, who warned Weinstein she couldn’t protect him on campus, and a veteran Writing Center employee who alleged his boss misspent public money for years that had been earmarked for students.
UPDATE: An email from the college provost to faculty about Lowe’s departure has been added to the article, as has information from a Campus Reform report about Lowe’s past conflict with the local white gay community.
MORE: Evergreen official asks student vigilantes to stop patrolling campus
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