The embattled Fresno State professor who tweeted out against Barbara Bush last week was hailed on Saturday by a local literary community and received backi💯ng from civil right groups.
Randa Jarrar, a tenured English professor at the school (also kn♔own as California State University at Fresno), sparked outrage after she called the former First Lady “an amazing racist” moments after she died and said she’s happy “the witch is dead.”
Jarrar has since left the country and is currently on leave this semester. A university’s investigation𝐆 is underway.
Although the professor was widely condemned for her remarks, a local Fresno li🐽terary festival applauded her each time they heard her name.
Jarrar was set to headline LitHop, a day-long festival for the art community, but withdrew just days before the Fresno e💯vent due to the controversy.
“I support Randa Jarrar’s free speech and I also denounce any violence against her or threats of violence against anyone else,” Lee Herrick, founder of LitHop, told the audience of around 100 people, .
Juan Luis Guzman, director of the festival, said the controversy over Jarrar’s remarks brought the community together. “I saw a lot of people showing their love and support for Randa,” he said.
Carmen Giménez Smith, a poet and the new headliner of the festival, dedicatܫed a poem to Jarrar that included the passage “a writer is dangerous,” according to The Bee. The poet said Jarrar is a write🐽r who tests the limits and pursues liberty through her literature.
Jarrar also received support from a Fresno State lecturer who claims to h♓ave been dem🌺oted after tweeting that President Donald Trump “must hang” in order to “save American democracy.”
Lars Maischak, a history lecturer, wrote Wednesday that the university a🥂nd the professor is siding with Jarrar’s attackers and is faili๊ng to stand up to the “fascist threat to academic freedom.”
Multiple advocacy groups came out in support of the prꦰofe🃏ssor as well.
“Jarrar’s tweets are unquestionably protected speech under the First Amendm👍ent and Fresno State has no power to censor, punish, or terminate Jarrar for them,” Adam Steinbaugh, senior program officer for FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), said in a statement to Fox News.