A judge has trimmed a lawsuit filed by a former Cal State Long Beach assistant professor in Africana Studies who sued the university, the CSU Board of Trustees, the creator of the Kwanzaa holiday and others, finding that she had not provided facts supporting her emotional distress and retaliation claims.
Plaintiff Anique John contends in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that she was chided due to her foreign accent and told she didn’t speak as well as her fellow Afro-European, Idris Alba. She further maintains she was “constructively terminated” in 2024 due to disparate treatment from management because she had multiple sclerosis and received work-related calls while hospitalized with the condition.
The trustees moved for dismissal of all of John’s claims that pertain to the university. On Friday, Judge Robert B. Broadbelt tossed John’s causes of action for whistleblower retaliation, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The judge said he saw no evidence John engaged in “protected activity” or that her alleged work environment was “so extreme as to exceed all bounds of decency in a civilized community.”
Broadbelt denied the trustees’ request that John’s allegations of discrimination, harassment, failure to prevent discrimination, harassment, and retaliation also be dismissed.
According to her suit, John was hired as an assistant professor and lecturer in Africana Studies in August 2022 and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis three months later. She alleges she became the target of criticism for no reason by department Chairman Ron Maulana Karenga, now known as Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga. Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 as the first pan-African holiday.
After a department-wide academic event, Karenga approached John and ridiculed her European accent, calling it “un-American, cold and harsh” while also stating that she did not speak like Alba, the suit states. John believed Karenga insinuated that all Afro-Europeans should speak a certain way, the suit filed in March 2025 further states.
John complained about Karenga to a dean to no avail, the suit alleges. The dean also was indifferent when John told her about the plaintiff’s multiple sclerosis and neither the dean nor Karenga offered John any accommodations, according to the complaint.
John also believed she was not given the guidance and mentorship that Karenga offered other employees, but rather than address her concerns, an administration member suspended her for 60 days on grounds of unprofessional conduct, the suit states.
When the 60 days were up in March 2023, John inquired about returning, but the human resources manager told her the suspension was extended through the end of the spring semester on a “new, baseless ground of dishonesty,” the suit states.
John tried to return in August of that year, but the lock to her office was changed and both Karenga and the dean ignored her when she reached out, exacerbating the plaintiff’s multiple sclerosis, according to her complaint, which also states she was denied a request to teach a course remotely so she could limit risks to her health even though other professors were allowed to do so.
John collapsed on campus in March 2024 and was hospitalized for four days, but the administration continued to email her and demanded she address work-related items, the suit states. John was “constructively terminated” that same month because she could no longer tolerate the university’s alleged disparate treatment, including a failure to accommodate her due to her health, the suit states.
In their previous court papers, the trustees denied John’s allegations and said any action taken regarding her were reasonable and in response to a “legitimate business necessity.”