An American woman has been fired from her job after she was exposed for harassing a Chinese student with racist messages.

Fired from job and university

Kathryn Ralph was fired by Heterodox Academy, a non-profit advocacy group of professors, after a Sherrie Shaw took to Facebook to call her actions out. 

Ralph, a sixth year postdoctoral student in the department of psychology at Notre Dame University, had also been terminated from her programme.

Called out for racist remarks

In her Facebook post, Shaw posted a screenshot of a message Ralph sent to her son-in-law, whom she said was "Chinese", and a post written by Ralph that was targeting Chinese students in the United States.

In addition, Shaw posted screenshots of Ralph's Facebook profile, as well as her bio on Heterodox Academy, asking her family and friends to "make this woman famous" for her "racist and threatening" messages. 

She thought that Ralph "needs to be held accountable for threatening college students who have no place to go".

Told Chinese students to go home

In her text message to the Chinese student, Ralph had allegedly told him to "go home" and ask his "country representatives why they hid this disease", referring to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She had also told him not to "expect Americans to welcome [him]".

In her Facebook post, which was only viewable to her Facebook friends, Ralph had also apparently directed racist remarks to Chinese students in the U.S., saying they are "milking" the country.

Saying that they were "for some reason unable to be uneducated" in their own "overpopulated" country,  Ralph told them to go back to China, "stop eating bats", "stop poaching rhinos", and to "stop counterfeiting goods".

She ended her post by saying Chinese students in the U.S. are completely to blame for the Covid-19 outbreak, and that they should "expect a response" from Americans for "[causing] the global pandemic".

Action taken swiftly

In less than two days since Shaw wrote the Facebook post, she updated the post to say that Heterodoxy Academy has since fired Ralph. 

The organisation had written in an email to Shaw that after promptly reviewing the posts, they had determined the posts had failed to "exhibit the constructive, respectful engagement" to be expected of their employees and members, and had also violated their "standards of conduct".

In an email from Notre Dame University President John Jenkins in response to a letter signed by more than 500 members of the "Notre Dame Chinese Community", Jenkins said the university had "acted swiftly", and that Ralph "is no longer affiliated with Notre Dame".

The email read: "Such abusive behaviour is deeply at odds with the values we uphold here at Notre Dame."

Rise in racist incidents

The viral outbreak has prompted complaints of racist behaviour targeting Asian people in the U.S. and Europe.

For instance, an elderly Asian man was captured on video crying after being attacked by others in San Francisco.

An Asian man smoking on a street in New York City was also targeted.

A Singaporean student was assaulted in London as well.

U.S. President Donald Trump was criticised for being racist by using the term "Chinese virus" to refer to Covid-19 -- a term he justified as rejecting claims by the Chinese government that the virus had originated in the U.S.

He later stopped using it in a sign of deescalation of tensions between both countries.

Top image via Sherrie Shaw/FB