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Well-known
The trial is underway for a professor who sued the University of California, Los Angeles, over his suspension after he refused to grade black students more leniently in the wake of George Floyd’s highly publicized death.
Gordon Klein, an accounting professor at UCLA, is demanding $22 million in damages in a trial that began last week in Santa Monica.
Back in June 2020, just weeks after George Floyd’s death, Klein received an email from a group of his students asking for a “no-harm” final exam that could only help their grades and would involve shorter tests and extended deadlines for final assignments and projects.
The students asked for special accommodations due to “traumas, we have been placed in a position where we much (sic) choose between actively supporting our black classmates or focusing on finishing up our spring quarter,” as The Daily Wire reported at the time.
“We believe that remaining neutral in times of injustice brings power to the oppressor and therefore staying silent is not an option,” the students told Klein.
The students claimed their request was not “a joint effort to get finals canceled for non-black students,” but rather to “ask that you exercise compassion and leniency with black students in our major.”
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“Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota,” Klein wrote to the students.
“Do you know the names of the classmates that are black?” the professor asked. “How can I identify them since we’ve been having online classes only?”
Klein also asked about students who “may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian?”
“What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half?” he quipped.
Gordon Klein, an accounting professor at UCLA, is demanding $22 million in damages in a trial that began last week in Santa Monica.
Back in June 2020, just weeks after George Floyd’s death, Klein received an email from a group of his students asking for a “no-harm” final exam that could only help their grades and would involve shorter tests and extended deadlines for final assignments and projects.
The students asked for special accommodations due to “traumas, we have been placed in a position where we much (sic) choose between actively supporting our black classmates or focusing on finishing up our spring quarter,” as The Daily Wire reported at the time.
“We believe that remaining neutral in times of injustice brings power to the oppressor and therefore staying silent is not an option,” the students told Klein.
The students claimed their request was not “a joint effort to get finals canceled for non-black students,” but rather to “ask that you exercise compassion and leniency with black students in our major.”
...
“Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota,” Klein wrote to the students.
“Do you know the names of the classmates that are black?” the professor asked. “How can I identify them since we’ve been having online classes only?”
Klein also asked about students who “may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian?”
“What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half?” he quipped.
