Two Connecticut lawmakers who are Trinity College alumni are weighing in on the controversy that forced the shutdown of the school’s Hartford campus on Wednesday.
House Republican Leader Themis Klarides of Derby and State Senator George Logan of Ansonia wrote to Trinity’s president on Wednesday asking that sociology professor Johnny Eric Williams be fired.
On Sunday, Williams wrote two Facebook posts in response to a fatal police shooting in Seattle. In those posts, he called for an end to white supremacy and the “destructive mythology of whiteness.”
The posts also included a hashtag that contained profanity. That prompted a backlash from right wing media and led to threats of violence from across the country against Trinity College. College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney released a statement saying that Williams’ use of the hashtag was reprehensible. She says a dean will look into whether the posts broke any college policies.
Hartford Police who are working with Trinity say the threats are non-specific and non-credible. The college campus has since reopened.
