The University of Central Florida is being forced to reinstate a professor who was fired in 2020 for saying “black privilege is real.” Charles Negy will get his job back thanks to a ruling from an arbitrator who found that the university did not show “just cause” when it fired the tenured psychology professor in January 2021. Dr. Negy challenged the firing, which was prompted by outrage and protests from students and administrators.
Fired professor to be reinstated
Dr. Negy’s long career at the University of Central Florida came to an abrupt end at the height of the 2020 BLM riots when he dared to publicly state what many Americans were privately thinking.
On Twitter, Negy pointed out that black privilege is far more real in modern America than white privilege, and that problems in the black community tend to have easily identifiable sources within that community.
These comments, and Negy’s argument that whites are wrongfully under siege in the United States, sparked outrage from his employer and from students.
The professor says that he deleted the posts in a panic after seeing the backlash, something he now regrets as he continues to believe that he said nothing wrong.
UCF condemned Negy in official statements and said that the school was disgusted by him and intended to find a reason to fire him as soon as possible.
Despite heaping praise and awards on Negy in the past and giving him raises after annual evaluations, UCF suddenly claimed that it had discovered a pattern of discrimination and harassment that justified his being fired.
Leftist students distraught
Being a tenured professor, Negy had the means to fight against this unjust termination, and the case ultimately went to arbitrator Ben Falcigno, who sided with him.
UCF, clearly seething at the rebuke, announced that it stood by its decision and its hostility towards Negy’s views, but that it would not challenge the ruling and would give Negy his job back as ordered.
The canceled professor admits that returning to UCF might not be an entirely pleasant experience, given the hatred he is sure to receive from colleagues and students.
Still, Negy believes that he has won a victory for free speech and academic freedom and he has no intention of apologizing or doing anything differently.
One former student who led the effort to fire Negy said that she is devastated by the ruling and began sobbing uncontrollably when she found out that she had failed to end her old professor’s career.
Regarding those at UCF who, like that former student, will continue to resent his presence on campus, Negy says “I don’t give a damn about them.”
