Trinity College Professor Johnny Eric Williams fled Hartford after receiving death threats over his Facebook posts. (Image courtesy of Twitter).
A college campus in Hartford, Conn., was closed Wednesday, June 21, as police moved in to investigate multiple nonspecific threats allegedly made by a staff member at the school.
Hartford Police and the Trinity College Campus Safety Department ultimately determined that a series of social media posts shared by Professor Johnny Eric Williams, which some students found troubling, were a “noncredible” threat, local station Fox61 reported.
The social media comments in question were published on the website “Campus Reform” earlier this week.
“I’m fed the f-ck up with self identified ‘white’s’ daily violence directed at immigrants, Muslim, and sexual and racially oppressed people,” Williams wrote in a Facebook post Monday. “The time is now to confront these inhuman a–holes and end this now.”
“It is past time for the racially oppressed to do what people who believe themselves to be ‘white’ will not do; put an end to the vectors of their destructive mythology of whiteness and their white supremacy system,” he said in another post, adding #LetThemF-ckingDie.
The sociology professor, who’s worked at the college for over 20 years, also published a questionable article bearing the title, “Let Them F-cking Die,” regarding the Black Capitol Police officer who saved Congressman Steve Scalise (R) after a gunman opened fire on a group of Republican politicians earlier this month. The “threatening” Facebook posts and article were enough for white students to flee campus out of fear for their safety.
A spokesperson for Trinity College said officials later closed the campus “out of an abundance of caution.”
In a letter released Wednesday, college President Joanne Berger-Sweeney said she had had a conversation with Williams about the posts.
“While Professor Williams did not write that article, he did share it on his personal social media accounts this week, and he did so with the use of a hashtag that connected directly to the inflammatory conclusion of that article,” Berger-Sweeny wrote. “Professor Williams, who teaches about race and racism, shared the article on his personal Twitter account using that hashtag; he also shared it on his personal Facebook page.”
“The Dean of the Faculty will review this matter and advise me on whether college procedures or policies were broken,” she added. “I told Professor Williams that in my opinion his use of the hashtag was reprehensible and, at the very least, in poor judgment.”
After the school’s reopening Thursday, June 22, furor over the professor’s controversial posts prompted him to flee campus and go into hiding, The Hartford Courant reported. Williams later issued a public apology, saying his posts weren’t a call for violence against white people and that they were misinterpreted.
“In yesterday’s frenzy, amid the the escalating threats to my family and me and the incessant harassment that so many associated with Trinity College were receiving, there is one important thing I didn’t say: I am sorry,” he wrote in an email to the college. “I regret that the hashtag that I quoted from the title of an article was misinterpreted and mis-perceived as inciting violence and calling for the death of ‘white’ people.”
“I never intended to invite or incite violence,” Williams continued. “My only aim was to bring awareness to white supremacy and to inspire others to address these kinds of injustices.”
The professor also posted a statement on his Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/johnny.e.williams.7/posts/10155446268432937
There’s no word on his employment status at the college at this time.
