Home Scandal and Gossip Right decision? Lisa Durden Essex college professor fired over Fox News interview

Right decision? Lisa Durden Essex college professor fired over Fox News interview

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Lisa Durden fired
Lisa Durden fired: Pictured the Essex County College adjunct communications professor as she appeared on Fox News' Tucker Carlson program.
Lisa Durden fired
Lisa Durden fired: Pictured the Essex County College adjunct communications professor as she appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson program.

Lisa Durden fired: Was Essex County College right in sacking an adjunct communications professor after receiving complaints following a Fox News interview? 

Disconcert has come to the fore with the revelation that Lisa Durden a New Jersey community college adjunct communications professor has been fired after school officials took exception to recent comments the educator made while as a guest on Fox News ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ program.

The decision to fire the woman told Essex County College president Anthony Munroe came Friday night after the school received complaints over what many perceived to be Durden’s racially insensitive comments.

At the time, Durden who is black, had discussed a Memorial Day event which had been exclusively held for black people. The event held in NYC was organized by a Black Lives Matter group.

When Carlson asked Durden her thoughts, the educator responded: ‘Boo hoo hoo. You white people are angry because you couldn’t use your white privilege card’ to attend the event.’

Adding, ‘You’ve been having ‘White Day’ forever’ as she defended the group for wanting to have ‘one day for black folks to focus on ourselves.’ 

Carlson responded during the roughly six-minute interview, by calling Durden’s remarks ‘hostile, separatist and crazy.’  

The school suspended Durden two days after the show aired.

At the time of her suspension, Durden said the school ‘publicly lynched’ her. Come Friday, the school said ‘racism cannot be fought with more racism.’

In a statement, Munroe said that families who contacted the school over her comments expressed frustration.

‘When the administration receives an outpouring of concern regarding our student body, it is our responsibility to investigate those concerns,’ he said. 

‘The character of this institution mandates that we embrace diversity, inclusion, and unity. Racism cannot be fought with more racism.’ 

He made it clear that the college is committed to a welcoming environment to all students of a variety of backgrounds, races and cultures, in defended firing Durden. 

‘In consideration of the college’s mission, and the impact that this matter has had on the college’s fulfillment of its mission, we cannot maintain an employment relationship with the adjunct,’ Munroe stated. 

Adding, ‘The college affirms its right to select employees who represent the institution appropriately and are aligned with our mission.’

Durden told NJ.com that she received support from students and staff members after her firing.  

‘It should be a safe place for me,’ Durden said of the college. ‘I thought when I came home from war, I would be safe.’

Durden went on to note that she’d also appeared on other Fox programs, including ‘Fox and Friends’ and ‘The Kelly Files with Megyn Kelly’ where she had been equally vocal.

Raising the question if previous political views on race hadn’t offended the school in the past, why now? Wasn’t that why she was brought on to teach at the school? Wasn’t the educator brought on specifically for her views celebrating black culture and pointing out the many instances of a white patriarchal culture that had preempted black progress ? Or had the educator simply been set up and taken the bait by the typically right wing media outlet?

Durden has since indicated that she is now seeking to take legal action over her firing.

Lisa Durden fired
Lisa Durden fired: Pictured the Essex County College adjunct communications professor as she appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson program.

And then there were these comments from the web that made this author wonder. See what you think?

‘But if there was an “ALL WHITE MEMORIAL PARTY”, she would be the first “boo hooing” and running to get an ACLU lawyer!’

‘I’m confused by the “all black only invitation” isn’t the point of BLM to be included in society… and yet they wish to distance themselves.’

‘The only “privilege” that exists in today’s time is black privilege. If you’re black, you’re a victim, and the world owes you everything.’

‘The media has everyone fighting against each other. They have black people thinking all whites are racist and they have white people thinking that all blacks hate us.’

‘She was suspended for exercising her constitutional rights. That should send a chilling message to everyone. The radical right’s desire to replace our republic with an authoritarian dictatorship is well-known and understood, which is why people like Lisa Durden speak out against such abuses.’

‘The USA is a white dominated society and that is simply a fact. It’s not the same to substitute white and black. Whites were never enslaved by blacks in the USA. The Jim Crow laws were there to show the freed blacks that whites still had privilege.’

‘Lisa Durden is a racist. It doesn’t matter what her race is. A racist is a racist, and she’s an embarrassment that defends actions that are not unlike the Jim Crow laws, and segregation REAL activists fought to end 60 years ago. Go listen to Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I have a dream’ speech.’

‘BLM exists to make the point that in a white dominated society, where the economic and political power structure has traditionally held sway and blacks have been on the receiving end of tremendous institutional racism and flagrant abuse African-Americans need to be recognized as equal to other Americans and their lives respected.’

‘The conservative right and their media allies have traditionally been able to stoke their base and gain attention by fueling racial animus and creating racial controversy, putting down and deligitimizing minorities in order to build up and perpetuate the superiority of Northern European descended Americans. Lisa Durden expressed her perspective and her points in a way that supports what being an American is all about. She used her First Amendment right to free expression to enlarge the discussion and for that she demonstrated that she is more American than the conservative mouthpieces who use minorities as fodder to sacrifice in order to keep the traditional power structure in place.’

 

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