PosteA world divided: Racism and racial slursd : 2020-10-18 14:59Updated : 2020-10-18 17:13
A woman holds a sign at the Unity March Against Racism in Chicago, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. AP
A woman holds a sign at the Unity March Against Racism in Chicago, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. AP
By Scott Shepherd
A woman holds a sign at the Unity March Against Racism in Chicago, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. AP
Racial tensions in America are worse now than at any point in my lifetime. The country just seems to be tearing itself apart. The news is full of protesters shooting each other dead on the street and black men dying at the hands of white police officers, not to mention politicians of all persuasions exploiting these tensions to shore up their support in an election year. And added to this already toxic mix is, of course, the coronavirus, which seems to threaten the very structures of modern society. Things, in short, are tough.
Responsible Americans on both sides of the divide are trying to calm the situation. If you look hard enough, there are heart-warming stories of love and hope, of peace and gentleness amid the violence.
But then Professor Greg Patton, a privileged, white male academic at the University of Southern California had the gall to use the N-word in his online MBA class on the power of communication. And not just once: he uttered it four times. Unsurprisingly, students complained; he was taken off the course and put under investigation, and he soon offered a long apology.
The one complicating factor in the affair, however, is that he didn't actually use the N-word. The clip is easily available online, and if you haven't already seen it then it's well worth a watch. In his class, he was referring to filler words ― words such as "um" or "like" ― and at this point he repeated a Mandarin word which, unfortunately for Patton, does indeed sound like the N-word.
So was he being offensive?