Smith College, an elite college in Northampton, Massachusetts, failed to defend its working-class employees against false and damaging accusations of racism levelled by a teaching assistant, The New York Times reports.
The story began when Oumou Kanoute, a black teaching assistant at the college, was found eating in the Tyler house dormitory cafeteria, which during that summer was off-limits to students as it was being used for a children’s summer camp.
Kanoute was approached by a cafeteria employee named Jackie Blair, who informed her that the cafeteria was off-limits to students at the time. This caused Kanoute to go to the dormitory lounge, which was also closed to students for the summer, where she was noticed by a janitor.
The janitor, who has been advised to call campus security if he sees someone trespassing, decided to give them a call. “We have a person sitting there laying down in the living room,” he said to dispatchers. He did not mention her race.
When security arrived, the officer recognized Kanoute as a student and had a brief conversation with her. Kanoute expressed her discomfort with the situation, saying she felt threatened, and the security guard apologized for bothering her.
That evening, Kanoute took to Facebook to lambast a number of college employees as racists. “It’s outrageous that some people question my being at Smith, and my existence overall as a woman of color,” she wrote.
Smith College president Kathleen McCartney immediately apologized for the incident without conducting an investigation or contacting the accused employees, and put the janitor who called security on leave.
The actions of both Kanoute and McCartney stunned the employees. Ms. Blair, who did not call security, had her name, picture, and email included in the post. “This is the racist person,” Kanoute wrote.
Hellbound and Down 