Primarily Black School Snubs Professor for Being White According to recent reports, Alabama State University (ASU) is being sued for discriminating against a white professor because of his race. Dr. John Garland claims that the primarily African American university discriminated against him when he was applying for available positions at the university. Further, he claims that the university went on to target him when he spoke out against the discrimination. [Garlands supervisor] expressed his opinion, stated or implied, that Dr. Garland did not belong at the University and was not suited to [the Universitys] type of students because Dr. Garland is not African-American, the lawsuit states. Garland is an active member of the American Indian Choctaw Nation, but is often identified as being white by his colleagues. He was hired at ASU as an adjunct professor in 2008, and officially became an assistant professor for the Master of Rehabilitation Counseling program in 2009. A small, powerful group at the University believes that Garland [has] no place at the University simply because of [his] non-African-American or non-Black identity, his lawsuit claims, This group, including combinations of the individually named Defendants, have conspired to destroy the careers and employment of [the] dedicated teacher. 