Jorge Vallejos, the author of the column “Perspectives” in the New College Window was fired on March 24 after a heated meeting in which he was berated for not using a racial term he felt was insensitive.
Vallejos claimed that his dismissal was a result of racism on the part of Window Editor-in-Chief Andrew Rampersaud at a press conference yesterday at the U of T Women’s Centre.
“[We] voice strong objection to [Vallejos’ dismissal] as we see it as an act of systemic racism at The Window,” said the Aboriginal Women & Women of Colour Group (AW&WofC) who were at the conference, in an earlier statement.
The conflict stemmed from a wording change made to Vallejos’ editorial column of the previous month. Rampersaud changed the wording “people of colour,” to read “coloured people.”
At the staff meeting on March 19, Rampersaud, Vallejos, and other members of the paper’s staff became involved in an argument on which racial terms were appropriate. After repeated discussion about the change, Rampersaud demanded an apology from Vallejos in an email to him, along with complaints about Vallejos’ disrespectful behaviour. When Vallejos refused to apologize, he was terminated via another email.
“Terms are always attached to the way that they were used in history,” said Helen Luu, a coordinator for the AW&WofC. “[When using the phrase ‘people of colour’], the group has reclaimed the word but changed its meaning.”
Rampersaud maintains that the change in wording had to do with succinctness, not racism, and that he consulted faculty members before making it.
“Vallejos was not fired because of the specific incident, but for his continual disregard for me,” he said. In his letter of warning to Vallejos, Rampersaud complained that Vallejos was harassing him.
When pressed at the conference, Vallejos seemed to waffle on the charge that his firing was motivated by racism, and said that Rampersaud did not necessarily have malicious intentions.
“I don’t think he did this as a racist, but out of ignorance,” he said. “But he did defend the use of racist language. I did what I felt was right and stood up for myself, I won’t apologise for that.”
For their part, the AW&WofC wish to use the incident to remind students that racism is still present on campus, regardless of the outcome of this specific incident. “We wanted to bring up Jorge’s case in connection with the recent hate crimes,” said AW&WofC volunteer Sidrah Laldin. “The incidents may seem disparate, but they happen to address the same issues.”
