Yale is offering to rehire a dishwasher who smashed a stained glass window depicting slaves in a cotton field, but he reportedly won't return until the university meets his conditions — including removing other racist imagery.
In a
statement released Tuesday, the Ivy League school said it was "willing to grant" a request from Corey Menafee "for a second chance."
"He will be allowed to return to a position in a different setting, starting on Monday, after serving a five-week unpaid suspension (including the time since his resignation on June 21)," the statement says. "Yale has already asked the State’s Attorney to drop all charges. We are willing to take these unusual steps given the unique circumstances of this matter, and it is now up to Mr. Menafee whether he wishes to return to Yale.
Menafee busted a window in the Calhoun College residential dining in June hall that showed slaves in John C. Calhoun’s cotton fields, telling the
New Haven Independent he was "tired" of seeing the "very degrading" image every day.
Facing termination and a felony charge, he agreed to resign if Yale dropped charges and cleared his employment record, his lawyer, Patricia Kane, tells the
Daily Beast.
"He was pressured to resign because he had to support his family and didn’t want a bad record preventing him from finding another job," she said, adding he's not signed off on the conditions set by Yale.
"They’re throwing down the gauntlet and asking him to accept their [reinstatement] terms on a take it or leave it basis. He has a say in this too."
Among Menafee’s conditions for returning is his demand the school remove other windows featuring scenes from the slaveholder’s life — and Kane tells the Daily Beast Menafee still has grounds for filing a discrimination or hostile work environment claim with the state.
"Those images at Yale have been the subject of controversy for thirty years," she tells the Daily Beast. "We need to remember the context in which this happened."
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