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Meanwhile, student reports professor to the school’s bias team for saying ‘black culture is the problem’ on social media

A black employee reported their supervisor, who is also black, to the University of Maryland’s bias team for telling them to “tone it down,” according to bias reports recently obtained by The College Fix.

The incident is one of the nearly 30 reports obtained by The Fix from the public university relating to accusations of bias on the basis of race or color. Several incidents of racial slurs were reported multiple times.

The university originally provided only a brief summary of the incident, devoid of any meaningful details. It also stripped any reference to the sex of the person being targeted the complaint. “Staff reported that their supervisor emailed them racist and derogatory statements,” the public report originally stated.

However, after being asked for more information, the university provided summaries of the complaints. “Black staff member [complained] to another Black employee, saying that they need to ‘tone it down,’” the university added.

The reports, obtained via a public records request, cover the spring 2024 semester.

A student also reported their professor to the bias team for writing on social media that “black culture is the problem.” No further context is contained in the report.

An attorney with a national free speech group said professors “are free to talk or post about religion, politics, social causes, etc. outside of the classroom, even if other people find it to be offensive or hateful,” when asked about this particular report.

Haley Gluhanich, with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said broadly, “bias reporting can have a negative effect on free speech” because it causes professors and students to self-censor – “this is especially true given that what many bias reporting forms list as things to report are actually protected speech.”

“Even if no punishment is meted out, investigating protected speech is still not okay … Instead of reporting people for protected speech, people should engage civilly with speech they dislike as ‘more speech’ is usually the best solution” Gluhanich told The Fix via email.

A university can punish a professor whose speech falls into discriminatory harassment or true threats, but according to Gluhanich: “The First Amendment protects both offensive and hateful speech” and “an institution cannot punish, or even investigate, a professor simply because the institution doesn’t like what the professor said.”

The university did not address questions about how specific complaints were resolved, when asked by The Fix.

Instead, spokeswoman Rebecca Aloisi sent The Fix links about bias report procedures and information about free speech.

The bias response team did not respond to an emailed inquiry from The Fix in the past two weeks.

Other reports focused on comments inside and outside of the classroom – and some that occurred while people were eating off-campus with co-workers.

A student reported a professor as racist for saying in the classroom that “immigrants don’t deserve protection or services,” according to the bias report.

Nine other incidents involved students or faculty accused of using the n-word.

Four complaints were related to students in online group discussions or classes. Two incidents involved emails, one of those emails involving the minimization of “the murder of George Floyd” and making “fun of black college students,” as summarized by the university.

Two complaints, made a day apart, appear to be about the same slurs scratched onto resident hall doors. Two complaints, also made a day apart, alleged the use of a variation of the n-word as well as the word “fag.”

The bias reports also dealt with off-campus interactions. A staff member reported two separate coworkers for conversations held “while eating a meal off campus.” One bias report stated the coworker at fault “made jokes about slavery,” the other report involved “staff comparing people’s skin tone to other staff members.”

Similarly occurring off campus, two bias reports consist of a student reporting another student for social media posts. One post “referred to slavery as ‘the good ole days,”’ and another post was a meme “of a black man in an Old Spice shirt and smelling himself.”

The Fix has obtained hundreds of bias reports in the past year. In many cases, both students and professors have been targeted.

For example, someone reported a pro-DEI University of Minnesota professor to the school’s bias team for using the phrase “piñata of shame” in a Washington Post essay. The school never informed the professor of the complaint.

Complainants at the University of Minnesota reported the Young Americans for Freedom chapter to the school for hosting conservative speaker and author Michael Knowles, because of his criticism of transgender ideology, as previously reported by The Fix.

Indiana University’s President Pamela Whitten also has been the target of two bias complaints – one for using police to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment and another because she did no properly “recognize Hispanic [Heritage] Month,” as The Fix reported.

Recently, University of Colorado Boulder student Zoe Johnson, a member of Young Americans for Freedom, sued her school for investigating her for several comments she made criticizing identity politics.

MORE: UN free speech envoy tells Harvard students to ‘fight against Trump’

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: McKelding Mall at the University of Maryland is shown on a sunny day; University of Maryland

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