Petition demands firing of NC professor for ‘racist’ tweets on George Floyd protesters
In the days since George Floyd’s death, a tenured professor in North Carolina has called it a “slave state” and referred to rioters as “thugs.”
Now more than 40,000 people want him fired.
Two Change.org petitions calling for the removal of Mike S. Adams, a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, have garnered more than 8,700 and 34,600 signatures, respectively, in less than three days.
“(Adams) has a long history of espousing racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and abusive rhetoric. There have been previous demands to remove him, however he remains,” one of the petitions states.
It calls for donors and trustees to withhold financial support until Adams is removed.
The second accuses the university of hypocrisy by championing diversity while employing a professor who “threatens, belittles, bullies, and acts in an unprofessional manner.”
In a statement sent to McClatchy News, a representative for the university said “we are listening to the outrage being expressed regarding the vile and inexcusable comments made by a UNCW faculty member. However, we are not just listening; we can confirm we are very carefully and assertively reviewing our options in terms of how to proceed. We are not able to comment further at this time, as this is a personnel matter.”
Adams did not immediately respond to request for comment from McClatchy News.
He is, however, no stranger to controversy — or petitions.
A contentious history
Adams has long written publicly about his “conservative views” and disdain “for political correctness” while espousing the right to free speech, The (Raleigh) News & Observer reported.
In 2007, he sued UNCW claiming the university had discriminated against him “because of his political and religious views” by denying him a promotion, the Wilmington Star-News reported.
The university settled with him seven years later after paying $50,000 in back pay and hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees, according to The N&O. Adams was subsequently given tenure and a raise.
A few years later as a columnist for The Daily Wire, Adams published an article about a 19-year-old student activist titled “A ‘Queer Muslim’ Jihad,” The N&O reported. The student ultimately transferred schools.
Online petitions — one calling for his removal and the other espousing his right to free speech — circulated in the weeks after, according to The N&O, but he was not reprimanded.
In 2018, faculty members at the University of Montana signed a letter opposing his upcoming visit and guest lecture, saying Adams had “a long record of mocking, demeaning and verbally attacking women, people of color, members of the Islamic faith and the LGBTQ community,” The N&O reported.
Recent tweets
Adams — whose banner photo on Twitter proclaims “Reopen North Carolina” — has been a vocal opponent of Gov. Roy Cooper and the stay-at-home orders that forced many businesses to shutter as the state grappled with the spread of the coronavirus.
On May 28, he tweeted that instead of shutting down universities, the government should shut down “the non-essential majors. Like Women’s Studies.”
The following day — four days after George Floyd was killed at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis — he tweeted, “This evening I ate pizza and drank beer with six guys at a six seat table top. I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina. Massa Cooper, let my people go!”
Shortly before, Adams had said rioters were “thugs looking for an opportunity to break the law with impunity.”
He also opined that the U.S. is in the midst of a second civil war, that white liberals — not black people — are the problem, and that Cooper is an “evil and despicable man.”
Adams has, however, admonished the officers involved in Floyd’s death and called their actions “completely indefensible.”
“Police departments need to relieve anyone using the kind of neck restraint that was used on George Floyd,” he tweeted Wednesday. “Don’t wait for someone to die. Put the officers on immediate leave without pay for using that technique. That would help us avoid a lot of the mess we are going through.”
But authors of the Change.org petitions calling for Adams to be fired say that doesn’t negate his tweets about protesters and “the killing of black people.”
One accuses him of perpetuating systemic racism and white superiority; the other says he has used his platform as an educator to issue “threats and harassment.”
Adams, for the most part, seems unbothered, according to his Twitter account.
“When you write the university asking them to fire me don’t forget to leave a mailing address so I can send you a box of panty liners,” he said Tuesday.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 5:25 PM.
