"This is not being taken lightly"
The racist college professor who told an Asian American family to “go back to your home country” has been suspended.
Last week 58-year-old college professor Tarin Frances Olson was filmed telling Asian American Tony Kao and his wife to “go back to your home country”.
According to the Daily Mail, Olson has been placed on two weeks leave while an internal investigation is being carried out.
In the video, Olson is seen walking away from the camera when Kao says, “I want you to tell everybody why you told us to go back to our country.”
“You need to go back to your country,” Olson replies.
“And what does that mean? It’s unbelievable. We were born and raised in the United States and you told us to go back to our country?” Kao says.
“Have your wife turn your phone off and I’ll talk to you,” Olson responds.
After Kao published the video on Facebook, Olsen released a statement saying, “I feel my perspective will be twisted if discussing the skewed video which cut out part of the incident. If you would like to have a full normal interview about the displacement of European-Americans, then I gladly am available to enlighten the public.”
Golden West College, the college that Olson had been working at since 1991, said in a post on Facebook, “we are reviewing all internal policies and viable options for next actionable steps. We do not anticipate the faculty member in question to be on campus this week and because this is a personnel matter, additional details may be limited as further review continues.”
“We want ALL students to feel welcome and safe at our College and in our community,” the college wrote in another post.“This current event has prompted the College to reflect more deeply on how we can promote and prioritize to the highest extent our ideals of equity.”
In an email to the Daily Pilot Olson said she was “not in a good place emotionally after receiving so many disgusting emails …. for something that wasn’t even racist and was then skewed by a guy named Tony who filmed me without my permission.”
Olson added that Kao asked her off camera why she “hated him so much”. In response, she said she did not hate him.
In a post on Facebook, Kao wrote, “we have no intention of seeking out or besmirching the offender’s personal life or career. It is our hope the offender is aware and apologetic for what she has said to us, but all we can do is hope.”