PHILADELPHIA – A black adjunct professor is suing the Community College of Philadelphia over claims of sexual and racial discrimination.

Brarailty “Rel” Dowdell alleges former vice president for academic affairs Judith Gay, an African American, and associate vice president for academic affairs Sharon Thompson, who is white, twice blocked him from securing a position as a full-time faculty member, Philly.com reports.

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Dowdell has worked at Community College of Philadelphia for 12 years and was rejected for full-time status in 2005 and again in 2015.

“Only three of at least 50 full-time faculty hires in the English department over the last 15 years have been African American males, the suit contends,” according to Philly.com.

Dowdell graduated from the city’s Central High School and moved on to Fisk University before earning a master’s in screenwriting from Boston University. He earned recognition with the college date rape movie “Train Ride,” and his film “Changing the Game” – about a black man fighting Wall Street corruption – was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, the news site reports.

Community College of Philadelphia statistics show more than half of its students are black, through only about 17.5 percent of full-time faculty are black.

Dowdell also filed a discrimination complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which hasn’t yet offered a ruling. College officials did not respond to Philly.com’s request for comment on the case, but said in a response to the Commission complaint that Gay and Thompson didn’t hire Dowdell because “”did not feel that the complainant met the qualifications identified by the department,” according to the site.

Dowdell claims in his lawsuit that none of the college’s hires for the English department in 2005 or 2015 were black males, while the college countered in its response to his Commission complaint that six of seven hires this year are minorities.

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Several folks who chimed in online seem to think that perhaps Dowdell simply wasn’t the best candidate for the job.

“Eh this one sounds like a stretch. Maybe he really didn’t have the qualifications needed for the job. His undergrad was English but his masters is film. Why should he be teaching college level English without a masters in English?!” Chelsea Elizabeth posted to Facebook.

“Let’s play the race card,” Pete O’Driscoll wrote. “I always like that one.”