Oberlin College settles lawsuit by professor fired after spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories
Joy Karega spread wild conspiracy theories, many focused on Jewish control, but was fired for allegedly failing to cooperate with an academic inquiry into her conduct. Her discrimination lawsuit was just settled on unknown terms.
![](https://c2.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Joy-Karega-Facebook-Profile-Pic-w-border-credit-e1470259554301.jpg)
You may remember Joy Karega, a former Oberlin College “social justice writing” professor.
Karega was caught spreading batsh*t crazy conspiracy theories on Facebook, many focusing on world control by Jews.
We first wrote about Karega on March 1, 2016, Oberlin anti-Semitic rant Prof hosting BDS event this week:
Last week The Tower magazine broke the story of a “social justice writing” professor at Oberlin, Joy Karega, who engaged in some bizarre anti-Semitic and anti-Israel commentary on Facebook.
The short version is that Karega, at least based on what she posts on Facbeook, sees Zionist and Jewish conspiracies almost everywhere, including claiming Israel was behind 9/11, and that the Charlie Hebdo attack and downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 were Mossad false flag operations. She also circulated and posted about the Rothschild family controlling the media and seeking global domination, so no mere anti-Zionist loon here….
Karega, by the way, was one of the faculty the Black Student Union demanded be granted tenure in its 14-page list of demands. In that same list of demands was the boycott of Israel.
This controversy takes place just weeks after hundreds of alumni signed an Open Letter to Oberlin decrying the anti-Israel and sometimes anti-Semitic atmosphere on campus driven by the anti-Israel BDS movement.
Not surprisingly, Karenga is hosting a pro-BDS event on campus this week sponsored by Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine and featuring Prof. Robin Kelley.
Here are some of Karega’s more “interesting” postings:
![](https://c2.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Karega-Oberlin-Netanyahu-ISIS-e1456842580702.jpg)
[Facebook posting by Oberlin Colllege professor Joy Karega]
![https://www.facebook.com/jakare01/posts/644193039018145](https://c1.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Oberlin-Joy-Karega-Facebook-Paris-Attack-Netanyahu-orchestrated-e1479272442198.jpg)
Oberlin College initially defended Karega, issuing a short statement defending Karega’s right to hold whatever views she wants:
Oberlin College respects the rights of its faculty, students, staff, and alumni to express their personal views. Acknowledgement of this right does not signal institutional support for, or endorsement of, any specific position. The statements posted on social media by Dr. Joy Karega, assistant professor of rhetoric and composition, are hers alone and do not represent the views of Oberlin College.
After several months, Karega was removed from teaching while the college’s academic investigation was launched, Oberlin’s BDS-loving Jewish-conspiracy-spouting Prof. Joy Karega removed from teaching:
After her rants were exposed in The Tower Magazine, Oberlin was on the defensive after a long-series of anti-Semitic problems on campus centered around an out-of-control vicious anti-Israel movement.
The administration condemned the comments to some extent, the Trustees issued a strong condemnation, and a majority of professors signed a statement against her, though she has a core of faculty and student support.
She was unmoved.
Now she’s been placed on paid-leave for the fall semester.
Karega maintained strong support on campus from anti-Israel student groups, Oberlin Student Senate condemns Alumni group for complaining too much about campus anti-Semitism. Karega and her supporters said criticism of her was motivated by racism, as we covered in Oberlin Prof. who posted antisemitic memes says she’s a victim of racism
Karega was fired, but not because of her conspiracy theories. She was fired, according to Oberlin College, because she failed to cooperate with the investigation into her conduct. We covered the firing in Oberlin College fires Prof. Joy Karega after antisemitic Facebook posts. The following statement was issued by Oberlin College on November 15, 2016:
The Oberlin College Board of Trustees, after extensive consideration and a comprehensive review of recommendations from multiple faculty committees and Oberlin President Marvin Krislov, has voted to dismiss Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Joy D. Karega for failing to meet the academic standards that Oberlin requires of its faculty and failing to demonstrate intellectual honesty.
The dismissal is effective Tuesday, November 15, 2016.
As a Board, we agree with President Krislov and every faculty committee reviewing this matter that the central issues are Dr. Karega’s professional integrity and fitness. We affirm Oberlin’s historic and ongoing commitment to academic freedom.
During this process, which began with Dr. Karega’s posting of anti-Semitic writings on social media, Dr. Karega received numerous procedural protections: she was represented by counsel; she presented witness testimony, documents, and statements to support her position; and she had the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses testifying against her.
The faculty review process examined whether Dr. Karega had violated the fundamental responsibilities of Oberlin faculty members – namely, adherence to the “Statement of Professional Ethics” of the American Association of University Professors, which requires faculty members to “accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending and transmitting knowledge” and to “practice intellectual honesty.”
Contrary to this obligation, Dr. Karega attacked her colleagues when they challenged inconsistencies in her description of the connection between her postings and her scholarship. She disclaimed all responsibility for her misconduct. And she continues to blame Oberlin and its faculty committees for undertaking a shared governance review process.
For these reasons, the faculty review committees and President Krislov agreed on the seriousness of Dr. Karega’s misconduct. Indeed, the majority of the General Faculty Council, the executive body of Oberlin’s faculty, concluded that Dr. Karega’s postings could not be justified as part of her scholarship and had “irreparably impaired (her) ability to perform her duties as a scholar, a teacher, and a member of the community.”
In the face of Dr. Karega’s repeated refusal to acknowledge and remedy her misconduct, her continued presence undermines the mission and values of Oberlin’s academic community. Thus, any sanction short of dismissal is insufficient and the Board of Trustees is compelled to take this most serious action.
Karega and her supporters cried foul, and Karega eventually sued, accusing the college of “an unrelenting and pervasive conspiracy to terminate the employment of Plaintiff.” We covered the details of the suit in Fired Oberlin College Prof. Joy Karega, who spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, sues for discrimination. We also covered the amendment of the lawsuit in February 2019.
The lawsuit just settled (h/t to a reader). The Chronical-Telegram reports:
A federal lawsuit over the firing of an Oberlin College professor who posted what the college said were anti-Semitic statements on her personal social media in 2016 has been settled….
An entry on the federal court docket posted Friday states the case has been settled. It is unknown how much she received, as terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Oberlin College spokesman Scott Wargo said the college had no comment on the settlement. A message seeking comment was left for attorney Gary Benjamin, who represented Karega-Mason.
Here is the docket entry:
I emailed the attorneys for both sides, as well as Oberlin College’s spokesman, seeking comment and also inquiring as to whether Karega was getting money from the settlement. No one responded.
It appears from the docket that the settlement has not yet been consummated. A proposed Order dismissing the individual defendants has been filed, and presumably Oberlin College will be dismissed only after the settlement is final. So things could go wrong, but it’s unlikely.
Is this the end of the Joy Karega saga? Somehow, I think not, it just may take place elsewhere.
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Comments
A sane institution would never settle with someone as batshit crazy as this. But … this is Oberlin.
Oberlin needs a few Profs. like the Prof. at St John’s College that Mike LaChance brought to our attention in a previous post.
Professor Parker responded with a provocative offer. “I am not able to arrange any divestment at short notice,” he wrote. “But I can arrange for the gas central heating in college to be switched off with immediate effect. Please let me know if you support this proposal.”
–Professor Offers to Turn off the Heat After Students Protest Fossil Fuels
–https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/02/professor-offers-to-turn-off-the-heat-after-students-protest-fossil-fuels/
So, Oberlin wouldn’t settle with Gibson’s, but they settled with this piece of garbage. Typical.
I’m sure George Soros ordered the college to give her $5 million to make her happy.
Lovely lady. We are still paying for cheap cotton.
To be fair, there have been dividends, millions. Blacks are not a color bloc. Many are, in fact, [American] conservative. Christian, even. They don’t indulge diversity, dreams of redistributive change, let alone retributive change. And we share common allies and friends, including Israel, and Jews. In God We Trust.
Blacks have been a reliable voting block for the Marxocrats for decades. In 2016 89% voted as expected. There is no more anti-American demographic than Black women, 94% of whom voted as expected.
There needs to be a scorched earth policy to not pay off schemers. Affirmative everything needs to be replace with just merit based programs. Black racism needs to be treated the same we have other groups, zero tolerance.
I am really tired of those bashing police, on balance, blue lives do matter more that criminals and their apologists.
Yeah, diversity doctrine and exclusion. That said, it was supposed to be affirmative action, not affirmative discrimination; but, like many quasi-religions of its class and incentive, evolved with progress.
This is Oberlin you’re talking about. They resisted firing her until they had no choice, but they feel guilty about it and are therefore convinced that a jury would find against them — because if they were on the jury they would find against them, so they settled. If only she hadn’t been quite so blatant about her racism.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that she’s gonna kick back some of that settlement to the administrators who “negotiated” it.
Jew-hater Joy: go in a corner and die.
No more games.
Karega? Or, Behar?
So Oberlin College smears as racist and tries to bankrupt an innocent family – yet settles a lawsuit and pays an actual racist.
Makes perfect sense. It’s all of one piece. The odd part was that they fired her in the first place, and in fact they felt bad about it, but they really had no choice. The evidence was just too much.
It seems like they fired her because they couldn’t get her to even tone it down a bit. And I’m guessing even the more insane profs there felt she was a bit over the top and likely annoying in the faculty lounge.
But, of course, after all that, they had to find a middle ground somewhere between sanity and the BDS movement.
The actual racist has a sacred color of skin.
If the professor was a blond haired blue eyed male, Oberlin would have fired him and never pay a penny.
And then they would brag that they oppose Antisemetism, while the rest of their high paid faculty and racist student groups continue to demonize Jews.
Now you understand liberals.
I didn’t know Oberlin knew that settlement was an option.
Such as these are usually allowed to be full on racists. And I am sure it was profitable for her. Maybe she can work on the Sander’s campaign. He shares much of her feelings…ironically.
This looks like the work of an insider who believes in her rants. Not to go too deep into race, but isn’t the president of Oberlin a black woman? After reading Snoop Dog’s rant about how the idiot gale King mentioned Kobe’s rape charge, he said a black should NEVER go after another black, it just might be what Oberlin wanted all along.
I think this is one of those things where they had to go through the process to appear even handed even though they probably defended their decision to fire her somewhat haphazardly because deep down they actually support her views.
Why would anyone send their child to this hate filled college? That would be child abuse – to intentionally send your child into an insane asylum that is built now on racism and hate. Imagine all the $$$ they have to raise tuition by to cover the costs of lawyers, settlements, judgements.
It isn’t surprising that they’d settle, although it is shameful. All along it was obvious that the administration, students and important faculty members fully supported Karega. It was only when the alumni found out that they were forced to kick her out.
In fact, the Gibson event happened just when Karega was officially fired. I think that isn’t a coincidence: they went after the Gibsons to distract from the Karega situation.
Dr. Karega received numerous procedural protections: she was represented by counsel; she presented witness testimony, documents, and statements to support her position; and she had the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses testifying against her.
IOW, unlike all those accused of sexual assault or rape.
accusing the college of “an unrelenting and pervasive conspiracy”
Well, really, they should have seen THAT one coming.
in a perfect world they’d have given her a set of kneepads and a bottle of mouthwash
If we’re that powerful, and our nefarious tentacles reach everywhere, you’d think she’d be more circumspect.
Ironic that SJWs need $$ to support their rantings, and these Lefty colleges have bloated their budgets employing wackos like this, who provide zero value. The reckoning is coming. Cut off the $$ and…