According to a piece publishing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Koran Addo, a St. Louis Circuit Court jury awarded a former Harris-Stowe State University professor $4.85 million after finding that the historically black university fired the instructor because she is white.
The case, which many are saying is the most egregious example of documented anti-white racism at a college or university in many years, Beverly Watkins stands to collect $1.35 million in compensation for lost wages and emotional distress as well as $3.5 million in punitive damages for losing her job because she is white.
The judgement, which could be reversed on appeal or modified by a judge, represents a sharp rebuke against those who say blacks are incapable of committing racist acts because they are black.
These are the facts entered into evidence that led to the settlement according to Blake Neff writing for The Daily Caller.
“Beverly Wilkins was a professor at Harris-Stowe State University’s College of Education from 2001 until 2010, when she was fired. In 2012, though, she struck back with a lawsuit, saying her departure wasn’t for budgetary or performance reasons but instead was due to an administrator’s vendetta against the white race.
According to Wilkins’ lawsuit, she started to be pushed out at Harris-Stowe after the college hired Latisha Smith as a faculty member in 2007.
Smith was quickly promoted to assistant dean and then dean of the College of Education, and Wilkins said she subscribed to a “black power” ideology that drove her to purge the college of all whites.
In 2010, Wilkins was fired, with Smith blaming the move on state budget cuts.”
Wilkins was able to prove that every white professor at the school was fired over time except one that was protected against being fired due to tenure. During the same time, only one black professor fired for cause due to a sex crime conviction.
Wilkens was also able to prove that while Smith cited university budget cuts for terminating her employment, Smith subsequently hired two new black professors to teach her classes with a combined compensation package in excess of what Wilkins was paid to teach at the college.
To make matters for the university worse, Smith tried to hide the real reason behind her decision to fire Wilkins by deleting emails – several of which Smith missed providing Wilkens with critical evidence of race based employment decisions for her lawsuit. In one email, a black instructor complained to Smith about her racist conduct.
“I am floored to know that we have an interim leader that has voiced her prejudice so openly to me and others.”
Smith no longer serves as dean but her hiring and firing decision could still cost the university millions to settle. Neff reported that:
“Neither Wilkins nor Harris-Stowe are commenting on the ruling, though Harris-Stowe board member Ronald Norwood described the outcome as “regrettable” in a statement to the Post-Dispatch, suggesting the school might appeal.”
