By MELISSA O’ROURKE | DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION
Ben Jealous, the former executive director of the Sierra Club, claimed he was forced out because of racism after being fired in August following sexual harassment allegations, Bloomberg reports.
The board of directors of the Sierra Club, one of the oldest and largest environmental organizations in the country, voted unanimously to remove Jealous from his role in early August after a review of his behavior. The dismissal followed a misconduct complaint filed earlier in the year by an employee alleging sexual harassment and bullying, though Jealous attributed his firing to racial bias, Bloomberg reports.
“No one can be surprised that the Sierra Club has resorted to personal attacks. That’s how racial retaliation works. When you’re being discriminated against, they don’t accuse you of being Black,” Jealous said in a statement from his lawyer, according to Bloomberg. “Before I left, I raised serious issues of racism and retaliation, and I have honored the confidential process in my contract rather than leak those publicly. It is no coincidence these accusations surface now, after I filed my arbitration complaint detailing the discrimination and retaliation I endured.”
The complaint alleged that Jealous made unwelcome sexual remarks that included graphic comments about his own sex life and the bodies of women at the organization, according to Bloomberg. The complaint also alleges verbal abuse and screaming fits toward the employee.
Jealous, who became the Sierra Club’s first black leader in 2023, previously served as the chief of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Neither Jealous nor the Sierra Club responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Founded in 1892, the Sierra Club is known not only for its environmental activism but also for its involvement in liberal political advocacy. The group lists its core values as “anti-racism, balance, collaboration, justice, and transformation” on its site.
At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the Sierra Club disavowed its co-founder, John Muir, citing racist beliefs. The group accused Muir, who died in 1914, of making “derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes.”
MSNBC host and civil rights activist Al Sharpton spoke out in support of Jealous following his firing.
“I am troubled by the Sierra Club’s manner in which they parted ways with Ben Jealous, a man who has carried himself with dedication, professionalism, and integrity in the time I have known him,” Sharpton said in a statement on Aug. 12 after Jealous’ firing was announced. “There are serious racial implications in firing a Black man of Ben’s caliber, in this fashion, at a time when diversity is under attack. It also runs counter to the Sierra Club’s own principle of eradicating racism.”
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I find racism to be A Two Way Street. Most the reporting of it happens in the Right Lane.
Much we aren’t told here. Similarly to sexual harassment being tolerated when the perps are gay or trans because “it’s who they are”, there are multiple standards of conduct from different identity groups. What is tolerated because of upbringing or culture when challenged by society as a whole brings accusations of racism and calls for toleration. I call rap and hip-hop music as my witness… Sierra Club disavowing John Muir because he wrote from the perspective of the rich and privileged of the 1880s-1920s is comical. Libtard hypocrisy on display here. Surely the Sierra Club saw this coming – Mr Jealous must be a real skunk.