Rutgers Professor Who Wrote 'I Hate White People' Still On Staff

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A Rutgers history professor who wrote a Facebook post saying he hated white people and "I just don’t want little Caucasians overrunning my life," still remains on staff at Rutgers University as of this week.

However, James Livingston, who is white, was found guilty of violating Rutgers' policy prohibiting discrimination. Livingston appealed that decision, but his appeal was denied and he still faces disciplinary action that could include discharge, the Washington Post reported.

Carolyn Dellatore, the associate director of Rutgers Office of Employment Equity, was tasked with investigating his comments, and she deemed the following of what Livingston said:

"Professor Livingston clearly was on notice that his words were offensive, yet instead of clarifying that he meant to comment on gentrification, he chose to make another belligerent barb against whites," she wrote. "Given Professor Livingston’s insistence on making disparaging racial comments, a reasonable student may have concerns that he or she would be stigmatized in his classes because of his or her race. As such, Professor Livingston’s comments violated University Policy."

You can read the memo from Dellatore about Rutgers' investigation here: https://www.thefire.org/rutger...

But Rutgers spokespeople would not confirm to Patch that he may still be fired. As of Thursday, Aug. 23, he is still on staff at Rutgers, the school told Patch. He may even be teaching classes this fall.

"James Livingston is a tenured professor of history in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick," said Rutgers spokeswoman Dory Devlin this week. "We will not comment on the specifics of an individual personnel matter. This matter remains under review with the Rutgers-New Brunswick academic leadership."

As Patch reported earlier this summer, Livingston wrote on his personal Facebook page on May 31 that a restaurant in his neighborhood had become overrun with white children. The restaurant is Harlem Shake; Livingston lives in Harlem. Livingston has been a professor in the history department at Rutgers-New Brunswick since 2003.

Livingston also said he "resigned" from his race.

"OK, officially, I now hate white people," Livingston wrote on his Facebook page (the post has since been deleted). "I am a white people [sic], for God's sake, but can we keep them — us — us out of my neighborhood? I just went to Harlem Shake on 124 and Lenox for a Classic burger to go, that would [be] my dinner, and the place is overrun with little Caucasian a**holes who know their parents will approve of anything they do. Slide around the floor, you little s**thead, sing loudly, you moron. Do what you want, nobody here is gonna restrict your right to be white."

Livingston defended the post a day later, on Friday, June 1, saying: "I just don't want little Caucasians overrunning my life, as they did last night. Please God, remand them to the suburbs, where they and their parents can colonize every restaurant, all the while pretending that the idiotic indulgence of their privilege signifies cosmopolitan — you know, as in sophisticated "European" — commitments."

Livingston has argued that he was writing satirically and that he is entitled to free speech.

“I allowed FIRE to publicize this finding not simply on my own behalf, but because I believe the intellectual mission of Rutgers, a place to which I’ve devoted my career, is in peril, and being overridden for the sake of public relations,” Livingston said in a statement provided to the Washington Post. “Allowing human resource administrators to tell a professor of 30 years what he can and can’t say on Facebook means that the tradition of academic freedom in our public universities is essentially over. I respect that tradition too much not to protest."

“I’m also a fan of the Constitution, which is equally under assault here,” Livingston said. “I very much hope the university will see its way to overturning this finding of ‘reverse racism’ and reaffirming the democratic freedoms that Rutgers has long stood for.”

Ongoing Patch reporting on Rutgers professor James Livingston: Rutgers Investigating Professor's Anti-White Facebook Rant

Photo by Carly Baldwin/Patch