Pennsylvania State University employees racially discriminated against a white professor who resigned in opposition to race-based grading and diversity trainings that argued white people are racist, according to a recently filed lawsuit.
Zack De Piero, who taught English at the school’s Abingdon campus, left in 2022 after working there for four years, according to the suit, which describes his departure as a “constructive termination,” arguing he was basically forced to resign.
The suit alleges “Penn State pressured De Piero to ensure consistent grades for students across ‘color line[s]’ otherwise his actions would demonstrate racism and he would be condemned as a racist.”
The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism is suing Penn State and several current and former staff members for racial discrimination on De Piero’s behalf. The lawsuit alleges De Piero was “individually singled out for ridicule and humiliation because of the color of his skin.”
For example, the lawsuit cites a June 2020 Zoom conference during which then-Assistant Provost for Educational Equity Alina Wong allegedly “expressed her intention to cause Penn State’s white faculty to ‘feel the pain’ that George Floyd endured.”
The provost allegedly “led the faculty in a breathing exercise in which she instructed the ‘White and non-Black people of color to hold it just a little longer — to feel the pain.’”
