The Power of White Tears

Race, academia and white privilege

I was a thirty-something Indo-Caribbean law professor with tenure. The student body had voted me ‘professor of the year’ four times in six years. Yet on January 8, 2014 I was banned from the University of Windsor’s campus. No evidence, only the power of white tears.

Julie Macfarlane — white, privileged and British — is still a professor at the University of Windsor, and still cries those tears. She has cried them to my employers, the media, and practically anyone who would listen.

She says I am a “sexual predator” who was “terminated for sexual misconduct”. My LLB, not real. My LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School never awarded. My PhD, according to her, non-existent.

Her proof? White tears.

My departure and voluntary resignation from the University of Windsor is covered by a confidential settlement. But I had not been accused of sexual harassment or sexual predation — in fact — there was simply nothing ‘sexual’ about the allegations made against me at all. Worse still, Macfarlane had never seen any of the documents. But as good racists know, Caribbean men are all sexual predators and fraudsters until proven otherwise.

Yet Macfarlane claims that her words are the gospel truth. Whenever she is called upon to substantiate her wild allegations, she hides behind a veneer of white privilege.

White privilege empowers people like Macfarlane to question the existence of a minority’s credentials with utter impunity. I had a Ugandan colleague with a doctorate from Harvard Law who was evidently unsuitable to be Dean because — according to another former white colleague — her doctorate “lacked gravitas”. Gravitas my ass. That’s just plain racism.

This is the pain that I, and other minorities, struggle with every day. We are asked to answer and account for things that white peers would never have to.

After departing the University of Windsor, I worked at a prestigious law firm in Mississauga, Ontario and the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica for brief periods of time.

Only to have those careers taken away from me by Macfarlane, who contacted both employers and continued her campaign of lies that I was a “sexual predator” and “fraudster” who was “terminated for sexual misconduct”.

Her evidence? White tears.

Indeed, it was clear that Macfarlane’s agenda was unfulfilled. Uprooting me from Windsor and destroying my academic career through innuendo and gossip wasn’t enough. Her wild unsubstantiated beliefs needed to be heard by anyone who would listen.

Like a woman scorned she followed me from Ontario, Canada to Kingston, Jamaica to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. The tears kept flowing.

Yet, with those tears comes astounding authenticity and belief. Massa day done, but mental slavery continues.

Macfarlane has given seminars, interviews and written articles about the University of Windsor’s use of a non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) to settle my case.

Her citation? White tears.

Yet — sorry to disappoint — there was no NDA in my situation. None.

This is the battle I have been fighting for nearly a decade. My reputation plundered at every turn by an obsessed Macfarlane. Her proof has always been her white tears accompanied by her ‘wrong and strong’ attitude. It is nothing short of racism and bullying masquerading as activism.

I had enough. I sued her for defamation in Trinidad.

I was represented by a sole practitioner and Macfarlane was represented by Dentons Delany.

Dentons is arguably the world’s largest law firm with immense resources at their disposal. Macfarlane — who was recently awarded the Order of Canada for her work as an advocate for the ‘self-represented litigant’ — sought to blow me out of the water with the world’s largest law firm.

Bullies don’t like when you fight back.

Despite publicly pleading “truth” in the court of public opinion, Macfarlane was unable to substantiate her wild, reckless and racist behaviour in an actual court of law.

She was ordered to pay over half a million TTD (over $100,000 CDN) in damages and costs, and is now barred from repeating false and defamatory statements about me.

Vindication? Perhaps. But one can never truly be compensated for a life destroyed by the bald lies of a racist bully.

Even more disgraceful is the fact during the course of the trial Macfarlane would have received full disclosure of the documents that supported my claim of defamation.

The documents demonstrated the existence of my credentials and my settlement with the University. The documents would have also demonstrated that there was no NDA whatsoever.

Yet Macfarlane pressed ahead. Continuing her wild campaign of falsehoods, wilfully blind to the truth.

One wonders how many more Caribbean men will be falsely accused — and their accuser’s lies believed — with no evidence? On the flip side, how many victims of sexual violence will be labelled liars because of the Julie Macfarlanes of the world? These are the real tragedies here.

I have decided to speak out against Macfarlane’s racist, obsessive and reckless behaviour because it is a tale familiar to many Caribbean men living in white majority countries. White tears have the ability to wipe away a lifetime of work and integrity in the blink of an eye.

During my time at Windsor Law, I served as faculty advisor to basically every student club in the faculty at one time or another, including the Women & the Law Group, the Black Law Students’ Association and the South Asian Law Students’ Association. I published over 80 articles and case comments. I founded the Canadian Law Student Conference and two national moot court competitions: the Fox Moot & Bowman Moot.

Was my popularity at Windsor Law too much for a racist like Macfarlane to handle? Is it that the young, outspoken, popular colleague from a tiny Caribbean island didn’t know his place? More importantly, why was she following me from employer to employer? Jurisdiction to jurisdiction?

These aren’t the actions of an activist, but an obsessed, racist bully.

It’s time to open our eyes.

Update: on November 17, 2021 Macfarlane withdrew her appeal of the decision. Vindication yet again. But at what cost to me and my reputation?