Craig Chapman, a white male assistant professor who has now been suspended from chemistry in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS) at the University of New Hampshire, was busted this week for posing as an immigrant woman of color on Twitter under the name The Science Femme, using the handle @piney_the.
Chapman used the account to troll the “woke” left including real women, people of color, and LGBTQ people.
The student paper at UNH reports: “In a slew of tweets dating back to June 30, 2020, The Science Femme boasted ‘I was successful in killing my dept’s woke statement on recent social unrest’ and that he believes this to be ‘a toxic ideology that cannot be given an inch.’ … he Science Femme credited themselves in being successful in ‘removing all woke terminology from the statement including anti-racism, white supremacy, white privilege, and claims of systemic racism.'”
The Daily Beast adds: “@piney_the was an especially combative Twitter personality, who frequently tangled with the left online. The account described a female opponent in explicit anatomical terms on at least one occasion, repeatedly railed against transgender people, and posted censored nude pictures of former Rep. Katie Hill. Hill, a former California politician, resigned last year after those pictures were made public in an alleged revenge-pornography campaign. When users accused the account of ‘attacking POC [people of color],’ as one did in September, @piney_the frequently claimed to be one. ‘You know I’m a woman of color, right? Racist,’ the account responded.”
The Daily Beast also published an email from UNH chemistry chair Glen Miller acknowledging that Chapman was behind the account but that he was still supporting him: “The fake twitter account was in fact set up and run by Craig. There were a large number of things written by Craig that ranged from unfortunate to hurtful to deeply offensive. These statements do not represent me, nor the collegial, collaborative, accepting department in which I have had the privilege to work for the past 25 years. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but when those opinions are dismissive or hurtful or harmful to others, it is not ok with me. I reject those statements and their intent, wholeheartedly. But even so, I do not reject Craig. I am not giving up on Craig.”
Chapman was found out after the Science Femme account posted a number of tweets related to Pineland’s Brew, a brewery owned by Chapman’s brother.
