Racial Name-Calling at Diversity Retreat Leads to Firing
Ousted coordinator says dismissal was retribution for “Driving While Black” lawsuit.
By Dianne Hayes
WILKES-BARRE, Pa.
The diversity-training consultant called one Wilkes University student of Indian descent a “terrorist.”
He also had student-athletes at a diversity retreat call an Asian student “Chink” — as a means of making the derogatory words lose their power.
They didn’t lose their power, but his boss — the multicultural affairs coordinator at the university — lost her job.
“An event intended to bring students together and improve relationships, ended up pushing them further apart,” says university spokesman Jack Chielli.
The diversity consultant, who acknowledges making mistakes during the retreat exercises, says the incident was just the excuse university officials needed to get rid of the coordinator, Andita Parker-Lloyd. He contends that she was forced out after filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Wilkes-Barre following a February traffic-stop arrest.
