Sky News host Rita Panahi says "sinister" false claims of racism on a university campus saw innocent lives ruined as a result.
Oumou Kanoute, a student at a women's college in Northampton claimed that she was a victim of racism.
She claimed she was harassed by a cafeteria worker, college janitor and security officer for eating while black.
“Despite the videos she posted of the incident showing the workers being awfully polite and non-confrontational Kanoute nevertheless claimed she was deeply traumatized because she was accused of trespassing,” Ms Panahi said.
The story subsequently went viral, there were headlines in New York Times and Washington Post and outlets across the country and all uncritically accepted Kanoute’s claims that she was a victim of racism.
The university's president called Kanoute to apologise and placed staff, including the elderly janitor on leave and issued this statement.
She also launched an investigation into the incident which found that not only was there no racism but Kanoute was indeed trespassing and had accessed an area closed to college students for the summer.
The 35-page report concluded that the janitor, security officer, cafeteria workers, had done nothing wrong or in any way motivated by race.
“The innocent workers who were branded racist and subjected to terrible abuse and threats never got apologies despite the report's findings being released more than two years ago. Two of them had worked at the college for more than 30 years but none of that mattered when they were falsely accused of racism,” Ms Panahi said.
“The only reason that we know this whole 'eating while black' catastrophe is fake news is because a reporter called Michael Powell revisited the story this week and asked about the investigation's findings.
“So, the staff at Smith College are still to this day having to undergo anti-bias training where they are taught to examine their white privilege, even if they're a cafeteria worker on minimum wage.”
