Last month, Dr Tabia Lee, a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) dean, was chased out of her position at De Anza College in California. Lee is a black woman best known for founding ‘a network to help minority teachers attain national board certification’. Her fatal sin? She was apparently acting ‘too white’.

On one occasion, after suggesting that her office adopt a standard Google Docs system to streamline internal communications, Lee was accused of ‘white-splaining’ the technology. Later, she was directly branded a white supremacist for suggesting that the names of all racial groups – not merely blacks – be capitalised in messages to the campus community. As it happens, this is also the recommendation of the US National Association of Black Journalists.

Some of the harassment faced by poor Dr Lee was beyond farcical. For example, she received serious ‘blowback’ after questioning the college’s mandatory indigenous land acknowledgement. This acknowledgement is typically recited before the beginning of every in-person class or major meeting. Lee criticised the practice because the college has been recognising the wrong Native American tribe. Later, she ‘made more enemies’ after refusing to join an informal network of executives and faculty members who all identified as socialists.

As absurd as Lee’s case seems, it is hardly unusual in modern-day America. In fact, accusations of black or Asian ‘white supremacy’ have become increasingly common in just the past few years.