A UCLA professor who refused to give black students a passing grade for skipping a final exam has been suspended from his tenure, according to the New York Post.
Professor Gordon Klein, who specializes in accounting, received an email from a white student requesting that black students essentially be given a passing grade for skipping the class’s final exam, since some of them allegedly wanted to go participate in the Black Lives Matter riots instead of study.
The student falsely claimed that students had “been placed in a position where we must choose between actively supporting our black classmates or focusing on finishing up our spring quarter,” incorrectly portraying the students as being forced to protest while also proving that they considered protesting to be more important than school.
Klein responded by sarcastically asking numerous rhetorical questions, including whether or not special exemptions should also be given to students who are from Minneapolis (where George Floyd died), or if half-measures should be taken for students who are mixed-race. He then ended the email by quoting Martin Luther King Jr., who “famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the color of their skin,” and asking if the student’s request would “run afoul of MLK’s admonition?”
In response, triggered students started a Change.org petition demanding his firing by the university, falsely accusing him of being “extremely insensitive, dismissive, and woefully racist.” UCLA eventually capitulated and placed Klein on involuntary leave for three weeks, while his “classes have been reassigned to other faculty.” Klein has additionally confirmed that he has received numerous death threats since the campaign against him began, and that his house is now under police protection as a result.