#Hoax #SmithCollege #Racism #Fraud
An elite Massachusetts liberal arts college has quietly conceded that there was no truth to allegations of racism made by one of their students that 'ruined the lives' of numerous campus workers.
Oumou Kanoute was in the canteen at Smith College on July 31, 2018 when she claimed she was profiled for 'eating while black' after a security guard asked her what she was doing.
Kanoute, a psychology undergraduate student, posted video of the incident on social media and claimed that she was the victim of racism.
She named staff: one of whom was hospitalized with stress, and another janitor, who was not present, was forced from his job.
Kanoute said the security guard may have been carrying a 'lethal weapon' when, in fact, he was unarmed.
As a result, Smith forced employees to attend seminars about unconscious bias, with one staff member, who disagreed with it, quitting her job.
However, an independent law firm investigating the incident has now found that there was no evidence of wrongdoing and cleared all those involved.
On the day of the incident, Kanoute, a 21-year-old who was raised in New York after her family emigrated from Mali, was in an empty canteen that was reserved for a summer camp program for young children.
The 150-year-old women-only college, whose motto is 'audacity, agency, authenticity,' charges $80,000 a year in fees.
About 6.6 per cent of Smith's more than 2,500 undergraduates identify as black, according to college data: 36.3 per cent identify as a person of color.
Jackie Blair, a veteran cafeteria employee, mentioned to Kanoute that it was reserved for the summer school, and then decided to drop it, according to The New York Times.
A janitor, who was in his 60s and poor of sight, and had worked at Smith for 35 years, was emptying garbage cans when he saw a figure reclining and eating alone, in a far corner of the canteen which was supposed to be closed.
Campus police had advised staff to call security rather than confront strangers on their own, so the janitor called security.
'We have a person sitting there laying down in the living room,' the janitor told a dispatcher according to a transcript.
'I didn't approach her or anything but he seems out of place.'
A well-known older campus security officer drove over to the dorm where the cafeteria was situated, The Times recounted, and was accompanied by a campus police officer.
He recognized her as a student and they had a brief and polite conversation, which she recorded on video.
'Hi,' she says.
'How are you doing?' a man says.
'Good, how are you?' she replied.
'We were wondering why you were here,' he says.
'Oh, I was eating lunch, I'm working the summer program, so I was just relaxing on the couch.'
He replies: 'Oh, just taking a break. So you're with the program?'
'Yeah. I'm actually a TA,' she says.
He replies: 'Oh, so that's what it was. We just wondered.'
Kanoute says: 'It's OK, it's just that kind of stuff like this just happens way too often, where people just feel threatened.'
