Millsaps College Prof Claims He Was Fired for Telling Students U.S. is ‘Fascist’ After Election
“need time to mourn and process this racist fascist country”
Stupid comments, to be sure, but not illegal. FIRE is defending his free speech rights over this.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Professor Says College Fired Him for Telling 3 Students U.S. Is Fascist After Election
After Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, some faculty canceled classes to allow themselves and students time to process a result that shocked the media and academe.
Campus responses to Trump’s re-election in November seemed more muted. But at Millsaps College, a private Mississippi institution of roughly 600 students, James Bowley said he canceled his Abortion and Religions class meeting the day after the election.
Bowley, a tenured religious studies professor, told Inside Higher Ed the class had only three students, and he knew they were upset about Trump’s re-election. He said he sent them an email with the subject line “no class today” and one line of text: “need time to mourn and process this racist fascist country.”
For what he wrote in that email, Bowley said, the college swiftly barred him from campus and, on Tuesday, fired him—ending his more than 22 years of employment. He’s now fighting to get his job back and said he remains on the payroll while he appeals to the institution’s Board of Trustees.
“This seems to me like the very definition of censorship, and of course it will make every single faculty member fearful of the administration, fearful of sharing their own opinions,” Bowley said. “There are hundreds of historians who would say that the election was a victory for fascism and racism,” he added.
The college didn’t provide interviews Thursday and didn’t answer written questions. The situation appears to be another example of faculty members being punished for commenting on current events—but this time involving communication to a small group of students, according to Bowley. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech and academic freedom advocacy group, is pushing for Bowley’s reinstatement.
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Comments
‘Fascist’ in the sense that the Federal Government exerted regulatory (and other forms) of pressure on Big Tech to suppress the Constitutional rights of political opponents?
No, he specifically said this AFTER the election, so that doesn’t bother him at all.
Apparently, this proof does not grasp the role of presidential elections in the peaceful transfer of power in the US. He needs to move on to a political system he understands.
1) Private College in an At Will State.
2) If you have an English Professor that uses adverbs incorrectly, it is a competency question. A professor of history who doesn’t understand governmental definitions is also incompetent.
This is exactly right. You weren’t fired for your political views, but for being an ignoramus and an idiot, who is obviously unqualified for the job.
Good for Millsaps.
This guy has his First Amendment rights, but he does not run the college, and he cannot cancel classes when he feels like it
(Can the gas station down the street stop pumping gas when he feels like it?)
Also, this bloke does not seem to understand what the definitions of racist and fascist are. So, he’s unqualified to be employed as a professor.
Good for Millsaps.
I’m pretty sure that yes, the gas station can stop pumping gas whenever it feels like it. It’s a dumb move and will cost them some customers, but they can do it.
My apologies for sloppy writing. I meant that the gas station employee cannot decide on his own to stay home —and expect zero adverse consequences.
Yes of course the employer can do whatever he wants.
whatever she wants
whatever they wants.
whatever kitty wants.
Btw if this case is representative of the kind of entitlement culture that the tenure system leads to, then perhaps tenure ought to be limited to maybe 4-year intervals, subject to outside review.
Given that the guy seems to be an imbecile, I do not believe for a second that the reason he gave for his firing is the actual reason. More likely, it was just the straw that broke the professor’s contract.
likely they couldn’t match mcdonald’s payscale
The good professor is apparently not aware that Conservative or Republican-leaning faculty and administration have learned through experience that sharing THEIR opinions endangered their jobs. See Weinstein @ Evergreen or Wax@Penn, for example. (Not to mention that the record shows that those in charge of hiring faculty are reluctant to hire Conservative or Republican-leaning candidates to fill faculty positions.)
Similarly, conservative or Republican students are reluctant to share their opinions. If they do, odds are good they will get FASCIST RACIST shouted at them. Not to mention risking getting their grades lowered.
The good professor is correct about what “hundreds of historians” would have said about the election, given the political leanings of the professoriate.
It is quite debatable that the election was actually “a victory for fascism and racism.”
As far as I can tell, no good professors were thrown into concentration camps during Trump’s first term. Hitler, Mussolini, and Mussolini-loving Peron didn’t get voted out of office. Trump got voted out of office.
As far as racist, Trump got 45% of the Hispanic vote, a similar amount of the Asian vote, and 21% of the black male vote–and 30% of the under 45 black male vote.
The claim of racist/ fascist is specious. How would all those professors who believe that the election was a triumph for racism/fascism treat students who brought up statistics like the above to refute that claim?
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-black-voters-gains-results-1982939
I upvoted but would like to point out one thing I think you missed which is his own students.
No protest? For a leftist professor being thrown out???
It looks like in addition to everything else this man had a hostage audience glad to be rid of him.
If you wish to be a physician you need to go to medical school which means first going to undergrad.
What that also means is you are going to be in an extremely helpless position.
I upvoted but would like to point out one thing I think you missed which is his own students. No protest? For a leftist professor being thrown out???
Turns out that a student–but apparently not one of his students– turned him in. From the link:
Bowley has a self-admitted reputation for “pushing the envelope.” He circulated a document/statement denouncing “genocide” in Gaza.
I am ambivalent about this. He is heist on the petard of a woke activism tactic–banning a heretic– turned on the woke.
If only one of his own students had the guts and knowledge to denounce to Bowley’s face his nonsensical “fascist racist” depiction of the US. That is what I would have preferred.
I’m not sure that’s even a reasonable hope.
According to the bulk of the news I see, the college students who are most zealously positive of the correctness of their views turn out to be members of various cults of liars.
As far as I can tell, no good professors were thrown into concentration camps during Trump’s first term.
Heck, as far as I can tell, no bad professors were thrown into the camps, either. It’s a really disappointing aspect of Trump’s first administration.
(Yes, that last sentence is sarcasm.)
Dear Millsaps College students:
1. Why are you there?
2. Are you aware that Harvard Business School MBAs and Stanford MBAs are not finding jobs?
3. Do you have any employable skills?
4. Do you have a plan for acquiring any employable skills?
Offered with the best of intentions – no snark.
“need time to mourn and process this racist fascist country.” Maybe he meant the country that is suddenly now no longer racist and fascist, so he has to mourn. (ok, jk!)