Stanford Prof Under Fire for Using Racial Slur in Historical Context
“read aloud an anti-Constitution quote from Patrick Henry”
This is the second time this has happened at Stanford in a short period of time.
The College Fix reports:
Once again, a Stanford professor is in hot water for reading a racial slur in context
A Stanford University law professor is but the latest academic — and second at Stanford in less than a month — to face the wrath of inflamed campus activist groups due to using a racial slur in context.
According to The Stanford Daily, Michael McConnell, a former judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and current co-chair of the Facebook Oversight Board, read aloud an anti-Constitution quote from Patrick Henry which included the “N-word.”
“They’ll take your ni**ers from you,” Henry had said, referencing the nascent federal government.
McConnell said he prefaced the quote with a warning.
Nevertheless, reaction from the Black Law Students Association was “swift”: “If there is one thing black students know, it’s our own history,” the association wrote. “Ahmaud Arbery is our history. Breonna Taylor is our history. George Floyd is our history. White men refusing to stop saying [the N-word] is our history.”
The BLSA also chided McConnell for saying history shouldn’t be “stripped of its ugliness.”
McConnell sent an email to law students noting he “make[s] it a priority in [his] class to emphasize issues of racism and slavery in the formation of the Constitution,” and as such will “directly quote many statements by supporters and opponents of slavery.”
He said he hoped students would understand that he made such a choice with “good will,” but added he would not read the slur again so as to not upset students he “care[s] deeply about.”
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Comments
“If there is one thing black students know, it’s our own history” Because, umm, racial memory? Except there is no such thing, is there?
What’s more likely is that some black students are asserting ownership of certain words (if you’re not black you may use them only with permission, or perhaps not at all). And perhaps also demanding that since it’s “our” history, those not included in that “our” may teach this only as we wish it be taught.
Perhaps the AAUP might explain academic freedom to these students, yet somehow I doubt they’d be so bold.
. . . so as to not upset students he “care[s] deeply about.”
Strange; why would he care about them, deeply or otherwise? They’re not even students, they’re activists. Different animals entirely. The concept of “student” should not be so casually debased.