Asheen Phansey is an Adjunct Faculty at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Phansey was the Director of Sustainability at Babson College before he was fired from the school.

Phansey suggested in a Facebook post that Iran’s leaders should list 52 cultural sites in the United States to bomb. His post suggested the Mall of America and one of the Kardashian residences as potential targets. 

The comment references then-President Donald Trump’s list of 52 Iranian sites that would be bombed as retaliation if the threats made by Iran’s military to strike American targets were carried out. 

Phansey stated that he was “disappointed” by the college’s decision to let him go “just because people willfully misinterpreted a joke I made to friends on Facebook.” He also stated, “As an American, born and raised, I was trying to juxtapose our ‘cultural sites’ with ancient Iranian churches and mosques.” 

His lawyer, Jeffrey Pyle, stated, “I say that it was a pretext because they fired him in order to stop the criticism on social media.” He also claimed that backlash was “racially intolerant.” Continuing, he claimed, “I think that makes it doubly unfortunate that Babson couldn’t defend him when some of the vitriol thrown his way was of that nature.” Pyle and Phansey alleged people called to deport him or prosecute him on social media. 

Babson college stated that Phansey’s comments do “not represent the values and culture of Babson College.”

 

Published – December 29, 2022