WOODLAND PARK, N.J. – A longtime Rutgers University history professor could be facing disciplinary action after an investigation by the university concluded he violated its discrimination and harassment policy when he posted on Facebook that he hates white people, a comment he argues was “satirical.”
Rutgers’ decision, the professor says, threatens the tradition of academic freedom at public institutions. But the university argues it needs to maintain a discrimination-free environment.
The professor, James Livingston, a white man living in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, said he was commenting on gentrification in his neighborhood when he posted on Facebook on May 31. But the post was perceived as discriminatory by the university’s internal investigation.
“OK, officially, I now hate white people,” Livingston wrote. “I am a white people, for God’s sake, but can we keep them—us—us out of my neighborhood?”
He wrote the post after visiting Harlem Shake, a casual burger diner on West 124th Street.
“The place is overrun with little Caucasian (expletive) who know their parents will approve anything they do,” he continued. “I hereby resign from my race.”
Livingston, a tenured professor for 28 years, has taught at the university since 1988.
He faces an unknown future at Rutgers, including possible discharge.
On his behalf, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has asked Rutgers in a letter to reverse its conclusion that he violated policy. The letter also argues that he has the right to his opinion as a private citizen.
“Allowing human resource administrators to tell a professor of 30 years what he can and can’t say on Facebook means that the tradition of academic freedom in our public universities is essentially over,” Livingston said in a statement.
A Rutgers spokeswoman said the faculty and staff have that freedom — but not when it comes to discriminatory remarks.
“Rutgers’ position on free speech is clear: All of the members of our community, including faculty and staff, are free to express their viewpoints in public forums as private citizens,” said Dory Devlin, director of media relations. “Yet, at Rutgers University, we also must foster an environment free from discrimination, as articulated in our policy prohibiting discrimination.”
Livingston did not respond to requests for comment.
The Facebook fallout
After the initial post in May, Livingston received about 230 threats of physical violence and derogatory name-calling through his Rutgers faculty page and Facebook, he said in his Aug. 8 appeal of the university’s investigation.
He claimed in his appeal that the threats came from “outraged members of the alt-right.”
Rutgers also received complaints about his post and demands for action through its anonymous compliance hotline, emails and calls.
According to its investigation report, someone wrote to the university: “I have two kids and I would never send them to a university that employs someone that has such a one-way attitude towards race.”
Livingston’s original post was blocked by Facebook. Facebook alerted him at the time that it violated its community standards. Still, Livingston wrote follow-up posts reiterating his comments.
“I just don't want little Caucasians overrunning my life,” he wrote. “Remand them to the suburbs, where they and their parents can colonize every restaurant.”
He said in his appeal that the “satiric” comments were about a broader issue of gentrification, the process of rebuilding rundown urban communities, which causes rents to go up, creating a neighborhood of more affluent residents.
“Speaking as someone who has spent forty-odd years researching and writing about American history, these are, as the letter of determination acknowledges, matters of ongoing intellectual debate,” Livingston said in his appeal.
Carolyn Dellatore, the associate director of employment equity, conducted the investigation.She said the university’s mission to educate a diverse student body has been disrupted by his public statements, since Rutgers received numerous complaints.
Although the posts were on Livingston's personal social media account, discrimination or harassment doesn’t need to occur in the physical confines of the workplace to be actionable, Dellatore said in the report.
In its memo on the investigation, the university concluded that Livingston’s statements “were clearly insulting and degrading to Caucasians,” and that he “exercised astonishingly poor judgment in his choice of words.”
The university argued that his statements put the university’s mission at risk since “a reasonable student may have concerns that he or she would be stigmatized in his classes because of his or her race.”
After an investigation finds a faculty member guilty of violating policy, the next step is to consider whether disciplinary action, including discharging, will be taken, according to the policy.
“If they impose any discipline on him, Rutgers University would be sending a really dangerous message that outsiders and internet outrage mobs can control the narrative: Target a professor and elicit a response from a public institution,” said Marieke Tuthill Beck-Coon, litigation director at Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
“I regret that my remarks were misinterpreted,” Livingston said in his appeal. “To suggest otherwise — in other words, to accuse me of racism — is to act as a committee of hanging judges, rather than to acknowledge that human communication is always imperfect. The benefit of the doubt applies here, too.”
He has written at least five academic books, including “Origins of the Federal Reserve System: Money, Class and Corporate Capitalism, 1890-1913,” and “Pragmatism, Feminism and Democracy: Rethinking the Politics of American History.”
There have been other recent cases of racism and anti-Semitism reported on campus, including white supremacist flyers and swastikas on buildings. Last year, a professor, Jasbir Puar, published a book accusing Israel of "what amounts to a modern blood libel," said Andrew Getraer, executive director of Rutgers Hillel.
Previously, the Political Science Department employed Mazen Adi, a former spokesperson for the Syrian government of Bashar Assad, to teach international human rights law. Adi also had voiced support for the thoughts spread by Puar "that Israel harvests Palestinian children’s organs for some nefarious cause," Getraer said in December.
According to Rutgers officials, Adi has not been employed by the university since summer 2017. Puar remains on staff as an associate professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies.
Follow Catherine Carrera on Twitter: @CattCarrera