Tabia Lee, Dr. Tabia Lee said to the Post that she is passionate about promoting multiple perspectives and creating environments where they can flourish. “That’s why I was bullied and harassed out of my job.”

Lee stated that she has experienced “non-stop hostility” since becoming the faculty director of the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Education at De Anza College, in August 2021.

She claims she is now out of work because her colleagues retaliated against the fact that she questioned certain diversity, equity and inclusion policies at Cupertino’s California school.

It seems that her vision of diversity, inclusion and inclusion was not the right one.

Lee stated, “I’m trying create safe spaces for everybody.” Lee said, “But some people wanted to me create safe spaces for them. That’s not my mission as an educator. This is not what I am here to do.

After many years as an adjunct teacher in middle schools and a middle school teacher, Lee was thrilled to be offered a tenure-track job at De Anza. Her role includes the design of workshops that promote inclusion.

She said, “I did my research and found that we shared similar values around diversity and equity.” “I was chosen, and I was like wow, this was a dream come to life.”

She quickly realized the harsh reality.

Lee claimed that other college employees engaged in “daily and endless harassment” right from the beginning.

She was trying to streamline communications among staff by setting up a Google Doc system. However, a colleague accused her of white-splaining — a term that refers to white people who patronize people of color and supporting white supremacy.

Lee said, “I am a black woman and they’re telling me that [they’re] white-splaining.” “[Everyone] treated me as if I had hurt [my colleague], rather than the other way around, since I didn’t admit to white supremacy.”

She raised new questions regarding an official school communication that capitalized “Black” but did not include “white”.

She cited the National Association of Black Journalists’ recommendation and suggested that all racial groups should be capitalized.

She said, “For that I was accused of being white supremacist.” “It’s ridiculous to make such constant accusations about people calling them racists, white supremacists, or saying they are aligned with right-wingers. It is very harmful.”

Also, she was criticized for questioning whether land acknowledgment (a statement of solidarity with indigenous peoples who claim the land on which the college is built) acknowledged the wrong tribe.

Although she supports land acknowledgments, she was disappointed by their alleged inaccuracy. She suggested that the school stop reciting the acknowledgments at the beginning of classes and meetings, but they didn’t fix the problem.

Lee stated, “To me that signals it doesn’t really matters.” “We are doing [land acknowledgments] to show our alignment with critical social justice ideology, but not to make any real changes. It’s almost a pseudo-religious, performative exercise.

Lee asked Lee for help in organizing a summit to address this issue after Jewish students and faculty told her that they had experienced anti-Semitism at campus.

Instead, she claimed that coworkers had told her the event was not important and that Jews are oppressors.

Lee made even more enemies when she refused to be invited to join an informal on-campus socialist network.

She told The Post that she does not identify as a liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat, or a Democrat. “I don’t identify with any of these labels so I didn’t want to be a part of it.”

Lee stated that Lee was unable to accept the fact that he was a part of the tiny socialist network bubble of anti-racist third wavers.

She was rejected for tenure because she “could not demonstrate cooperation with colleagues or staff” and “would not accept constructive criticism.”

Lee claims that these accusations are “bald faced lies”, and cannot help but feel that her differing opinions are the reason she was not granted tenure.

However, she will be unemployed as of June 15, 2015.

Lee stated, “I had to die by all means.”

The experience was disappointing for a diversity, equity and inclusion professional who believes in the value of her craft. “Bringing people together, to explore and discuss different ideologies, was deemed unacceptable and unwelcome.”

Lee stated that Lee’s mission is to “surface different perspectives that are available… so once we understand one another, we can find commonalities.” Multiple perspectives are the whole point.

Lee stated that higher-education DEI practices are being attempted by “some people who want to do it in an inclusive manner… actually being inclusive.” “Those people are being targeted to be neutralized and eliminated by those who work from extreme ideologies.”

Lee answered a question about legal action and said, “I haven’t ruled out” yet.

Paula Norsell (De Anza’s Coordinator for Communications) told The Post that faculty members have extensive due process rights and appeal rights, both under the law as well as negotiated through their bargaining units.