(Image via Getty)
Given the state of race relations in this country, I guess this isn’t surprising. But I have to write about another law school professor willfully ignoring the violent history of the N-word and deciding to use it in a classroom setting pretty frequently. It’s unsettling.
In any event, the latest incident happened at UC Irvine School of Law, where according to a statement signed by senior members of the law school administration, an unnamed faculty member used the N-word in class, and then again — multiple times — in conversations with the Dean. And that prof apparently won’t “apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing.”
The statement strongly condemns the words of the unnamed faculty member, but suggests the banner of “academic freedom” is being flown to prevent any consequences for the professor:
[O]ne one of UCI Law School’s faculty members yesterday used the “N” word in a class and then again multiple times in a conversation with the Dean. Although confronted by the harm this action caused to Black students specifically and the law school community more generally, the faculty member has yet to apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing.
Many members of the Senior Administrative team have spent much time over the last 24 hours listening to Black students so traumatized that they could not focus and attend class. Our Black students are once again bearing an unacceptable and unnecessary burden.
Academic freedom may technically permit a professor to use the “N” word, but we call for our community to do better. We say we are different, but we must BE different. We should not add to the pain of our students in the name of academic freedom. We condemn without qualification the classroom utterance of terms, such as the N-word, that are loaded with histories of pain and oppression. Human decency and respect for the feelings of others require as much.
Let’s put aside the red herring of academic freedom, and look at the glaring thing this message leaves out: the faculty member’s name. That means there’s no public record of which professor thinks it’s just fine to throw around the N-word and prospective and future students (because this person isn’t going anywhere) do not have that valuable bit of information. That means they could unwittingly walk into the professor’s classroom — or be assigned to the professor’s class (there’s no information about whether this prof teaches mandatory 1L classes) — without being forearmed with the knowledge that the prof likes to drop the N-word.
I’m sure a lot of current students are in the know and have heard who this is, but it’s about more than just the folks at UCI right now. It is disturbing that the senior administrative team isn’t willing to name the professor. Academic freedom means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee you anonymity for using racial slurs.
Read the full email below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).