CU Boulder Professor Accused Of Racist, Sexist Facebook Posts

BOULDER, CO — A University of Colorado professor is accused of posting racist and sexist comments on Facebook. The Boulder County Democratic Party called out the professor Tuesday in a social media post, which urges people to contact the university and report him.

Phil Graves, who teaches economics at CU Boulder, made comments on the page of a private Facebook group in response to a story by the Daily Camera. The article highlighted Boulder Valley School District data, which shows that students of color are referred to law enforcement several times more often than white students.

“That is only a ‘problem’ if they do not commit crimes at 2-3 times the rate of other students. Any evidence of that?” Graves' post read.

The person who posted the article asked him if he needs "evidence" that "Black and Latin American people are less criminal than white people," and the professor replied, "yes."

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The Boulder County Democratic Party took screenshots of the professor's posts and shared them on social media.

The party also posted another screenshot of a comment by Graves, which was written in response to an article about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York, Dem).

“I actually think she is pretty ‘hot.’ If she were just a normal bartender, I would probably be interested! But, she is not as bright as most bartenders and far too convinced that her opinions actually ‘matter,'” Graves' post read.

In response to the accusations, Graves said his posts were "tasteless" but not sexist or racist.

"I am not the least bit racist or sexist and I have never been," he said in a statement. "Every single commenter on the more 'tasteless' post about AOC completely missed (or ignored) the smiley face indicating that I was joking."

The university has released the following statement in response:

We have received multiple reports of the social media posts in question and have reported them to our Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance. This is the university's first step in reviewing the facts and determining what actions can be taken, including investigating allegations of harassing behavior toward individuals based on multiple protected classes. As Chancellor DiStefano has underscored in the recent past, discrimination and harassment have no place at CU Boulder.