A Princeton University professor who recently called President Trump “a racist and sexist megalomaniac” has canceled her upcoming lectures out of fear for her safety.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African Studies at the New Jersey Ivy League school, made the comments about Trump during a commencement speech at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., on May 20.
Taylor said in her address that she wanted to broach the subject to warn graduates about Trump’s America, saying the 45th President poses a clear threat to the future.
Taylor blamed Fox News for the hate emails that followed, saying that she was targeted after the conservative network aired a portion of her speech, according to CBS News.
In a statement released Wednesday through the Facebook account of her publisher, Haymarket Books, Taylor said Fox ran the piece to “incite and unleash the mob-like mentality of its fringe audience.”
Taylor claims that the emails she received in response — over 50 — were racially fueled, sexist and threatening.
“I have been threatened with lynching and having the bullet from a .44 Magnum put in my head,” she wrote.
“The cancelation of my speaking events is a concession to the violent intimidation that was, in my opinion, provoked by Fox News,” the statement read.
“But I am releasing this statement to say that I will not be silent. Their side uses the threat of violence and intimidation because they cannot compete in the field of politics, ideas, and organizing.”
Taylor also cited her family’s safety in her decision not to conduct the lectures.
Taylor is the author of “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.” She was scheduled to speak at Seattle’s Town Hall and the University of California-San Diego.
The professor was on sabbatical from Princeton during the 2016-17 academic year, CBS News reports.
