The California professor under investigation by his woke college for sharing Jeremy’s Chocolate bars at a campus event last month said the treats were wildly popular with students even if administrators were miffed.
David Richardson, a tenured, 33-year history professor at Madera Community College near Fresno, told The Daily Wire he is now being investigated by the school after a trans-identifying staff member complained about him sharing the chocolate bars along with other snacks. Wrappers on the bars, sold by The Daily Wire, say “He/Him” for chocolate with “nuts” and “She/Her” for “nutless” version of the chocolate, a reference to the two genders. Handing them out apparently angered the staffer because the candy bars reinforce the long-scientifically accepted principle that gender is binary.
David Richardson (Courtesy of David Richardson)
David Richardson (Photo from LinkedIn)
“Word evidently spread and they became the most popular item on the table,” Richardson told The Daily Wire. “The staff member returned and demanded to know what these candy bars meant.”
The Daily Wire started Jeremy’s Chocolate in response to a Hershey’s ad featuring a trans-identifying man for International Women’s Day.
Richardson said that on Saturday, April 29, he brought the chocolate bars to hand out at the history department’s table at an April 29 open house event at the Fresno-area campus that showcased the school’s programs. The longtime professor said he has provided food and drinks at his own expense for decades at the school’s special events. He brought the Jeremy’s Chocolate bars along with other treats including candy, chips, and popcorn.
David Richardson at Universal Studios posing with a Dr. Suess “Mulberry St” signpost (Courtesy of David Richardson)
The professor said he heard nothing more about the incident until Tuesday night, when a uniformed district police officer showed up at his front door. The officer handed him a letter informing him that he had been placed on paid administrative leave while an investigation into his creation of a “hostile” work environment was conducted. Richardson turned in his keys on Wednesday and lost access to all district systems, including his email account, he said.
Richardson is also now banned from “non-public” areas in the district.
“My students are left without an instructor two weeks before the end of the semester and I am no longer allowed on campus without the express permission of the college president because Jeremy’s Chocolate creates a hostile work environment,” he said.
Madera Community College declined to comment, saying it was a “personnel matter.”
Richardson, who is gay and conservative, has been fighting the gender ideology “infiltrating our campus” for several years, he said. Richardson sued the community college district in September, alleging the school punished him for “mocking” gender pronouns, according to the complaint, which his attorney shared with The Daily Wire.
Richardson displayed “Do, Re, Mi” as his pronouns on his screen during a mandatory faculty Zoom call led by a trans-identifying man, the lawsuit says. The trans-identifying man, chemistry professor Jamie MacArthur, PhD, emailed him later, telling Richardson his “joke” was “extremely offensive” and “harmful to trans people.”
“Although it was painful for me not to say anything in that moment, I chose to put the good of the community ahead of my own well-being,” MacArthur wrote, according to the lawsuit.
Richardson was found guilty by the school of “intentionally misusing pronouns in a mocking manner” and “retaliating” against MacArthur, the complaint shows. He was ordered to complete six hours of DEI training as well as write a response describing how he can “create a more inclusive environment that does not center on homophobia or transphobia.”
Richardson, 59, said his career at Madera is “my life’s work.”
“My dreams were fairly humble,” he said. “I thought I might have a nice, productive career, I’d educate students, maybe inspire a love for history in a few of them, and then … just fade away.”
Now though, he wants an apology from the district, he says.
“It feels like a betrayal,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to take a bullet for me. I’ll take my own bullets. But yeah, it’s hard.”