"How is the teacher not fired": Stanford University lecturer sparks outrage online over allegedly calling Jewish students colonizers, gets suspended

A Stanford University lecturer was suspended by the institute for reportedly calling out individual students based on their "backgrounds and identities." The Stanford non-faculty instructor allegedly discriminated against Jewish students in the incident that took place on October 10.

Netizens were outraged by the alleged behavior of the Stanford University lecturer. Once the details surfaced online, individuals took to social media and called for him to be fired.

Netizens wanted the lecturer to be fired (Image via YouTube/@luzegenao8492)

Jewish student leaders from Stanford told the San Francisco Chronicle that the lecturer in question allegedly categorized students into the colonized and the colonizers based on ancestry. Once he encountered a student from Israel, he allegedly said:

"Oh, definitely a colonizer."

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"Unacceptable": Netizens criticize Stanford University for not firing lecturer

Social media users could not believe that the lecturer was only being suspended and not fired. People believed that his alleged actions warranted a harsh punishment and even believed that he should be sued. Some netizens even went as far as to say that the individual should be investigated and barred from ever teaching again.

Netizens also discussed the lack of strict action by Stanford University. Some people claimed that the university allowed identity-based separation among students as they shared their thoughts about the alleged incident in the comments section of The New York Post's YouTube video.

Both the university and the lecturer came under fire (Image via YouTube)

Both the university and the lecturer came under fire (Image via YouTube)

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Stanford lecturer allegedly labeled students as either colonized or colonizer

Jewish student leaders from Stanford University spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle about what allegedly happened at the university on Tuesday, October 10. They stated that a lecturer, who was described as being "popular" had two freshman classes of 18 students in total, and their lesson for the day was colonization.

Student leaders told the publication that the professor reportedly started the lecture by referencing the current Israel-Hamas conflict. He allegedly blamed the entire situation on Zionists before he requested Jewish students to raise their hands and proceeded to separate them from their belongings.

The lecturer reportedly stated that this was what the Jewish people were doing to the people of Palestine. He then allegedly compared colonization to the holocaust, stating that more individuals had died from the former.

Allegedly, the lecturer further spoke about Belgium's King Leopold II's 19th-century colonization of Congo and the resultant 12 million African deaths. He then reportedly asked students about their ancestry and labeled them as either colonized or colonizer. As mentioned earlier, he also allegedly categorized a student from Israel as being "definitely a colonizer."

The report by the San Francisco Chronicle was prepared based on interviews of the students in the class, which were carried out by Stanford Israeli Student Association co-presidents, Senior Nourya Cohen, and Andrei Mandelshtam. The students chose to remain anonymous and the former told the publication:

"I feel absolutely dehumanized that someone in charge of students and developing minds could possibly try and justify the massacre of my people."

They added:

"It’s like I’m reliving the justification of Nazis 80 years ago on today’s college campus."

University President, Richard Saller, and Provost, Jenny Martinez addressed the incident in a press release issued on October 11. The university stated that the situation was a cause for serious concern as the press release read:

"Academic freedom does not permit the identity-based targeting of students."

The university confirmed:

"The instructor in this course is not currently teaching while the university works to ascertain the facts of the situation."

The press release also highlighted that the university stood "unequivocally" against hatred based on religion, origin, race, ethnicity, and other categories. The institute also stressed the importance of maintaining "university neutrality." They then went on to condemn terrorism and mass atrocities by calling them a "moral matter."