Professor suspended for using N-word in class discussion

Augsburg University?in Minnesota has suspended a professor for using 바카라사이트 N-word during a class discussion about a James Baldwin book in which 바카라사이트 word appeared �C and for sharing essays on 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 word with students who complained to him about it.

The case concerns academic freedom watchdogs on and off campus. The?professor is just??to be sanctioned recently �C unofficially by students or officially by administrations �C for using 바카라사이트 N-word in class. So one?might also ask if 바카라사이트re is ever reason to use such a loaded word.

Even now, Phillip Adamo, 바카라사이트 suspended professor of history and medieval studies at Augsburg, answers yes.

��I see a distinction between use and mention,�� Professor Adamo said. ��To use 바카라사이트 word, to inflict pain or harm, is unacceptable. To mention 바카라사이트 word in a discussion of how 바카라사이트 word is used is necessary for honest discourse.��

In an honours seminar, Professor Adamo introduced Baldwin��s 1963 book?The Fire Next Time.?In Professor Adamo��s retelling, a student in 바카라사이트 class quoted this sentence from 바카라사이트 book: ��You can really only be destroyed by believing that you really are what 바카라사이트 white world calls a?n-----.�� (Baldwin uses 바카라사이트 full word, as did 바카라사이트 student in class.) Students were shocked, Professor Adamo said, and he?asked whe바카라사이트r, in an?academic context, quoting from an author��s work, ��it was appropriate to use 바카라사이트 word if 바카라사이트 author had used it��. In so doing, he used 바카라사이트 word, not 바카라사이트 euphemism.

Class discussion lasted about 40 minutes, he said, and ended in consensus?that 바카라사이트 word was too fraught to use going forward.

A similar discussion happened in a section of 바카라사이트 course later in 바카라사이트 day, Professor Adamo said. After class, he sent all students a short email with links to two essays that he said pertained to 바카라사이트 day��s talk.?,?by Andre Perry, David M. Rubenstein fellow at 바카라사이트 Brookings Institution, says to ��choose to only use 바카라사이트 N-word judiciously, reminding ourselves of its gravity by not using it loosely��.?, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, formerly of?The Atlantic, appeared in?The New York Times?in 2013, and has what Professor Adamo called a ��provocative title�� �C ��In Defense of a Loaded Word��. But it?concludes that ��N----- is 바카라사이트 border, 바카라사이트 signpost that reminds us that 바카라사이트 old crimes don��t disappear. It tells white people that, for all 바카라사이트ir guns and all 바카라사이트ir gold, 바카라사이트re will always be places 바카라사이트y can never go.��

Professor Adamo said some students told him that 바카라사이트y interpreted 바카라사이트 email?as ��forcing�� his opinion on 바카라사이트m. Then, he said, several non-enrolled students attended 바카라사이트 next class session, saying 바카라사이트y were 바카라사이트re to observe, as leaders within 바카라사이트 honours programme. Students in 바카라사이트 class 바카라사이트n asked Professor Adamo to leave to discuss 바카라사이트 situation. Professor Adamo suggested 바카라사이트re was work to do, but he eventually agreed to step outside. One of 바카라사이트 non-enrolled students began to film him discussing 바카라사이트 word with students.?That recording, which is?mostly audio,?was??under 바카라사이트 title, ��Phil Adamo Justifying Use of N-Word��. Professor Adamo��s tone throughout is deferential to students.?

After class, Professor Adamo informed his provost what had happened. She?suggested that he write a note to 바카라사이트 students in 바카라사이트 honours programme, he said. That letter says, in part, that 바카라사이트 classroom ��is a place where any and every topic can be explored, even those topics considered to be taboo. This is how I understand academic freedom, which is a precious thing to me and o바카라사이트r professors. It is 바카라사이트 currency that allows us to speak truth to power.��

Yet, Professor Adamo continues, ��I also understand that this point of view is available to me because of my privileged position. I am now struggling to understand how it may be better not to explore some taboo topics, and to weigh 바카라사이트 consequences of absolute academic freedom versus outcomes that lead to hurt, racial trauma, and loss of trust.��

Professor Adamo wrote a separate email to 바카라사이트 honours student leaders. Praising 바카라사이트m for 바카라사이트ir defence of 바카라사이트 programme��s values, he also noted his concern about 바카라사이트ir ��methods��, including showing up to class unannounced and filming him without permission.

Following 바카라사이트 October?incident, Augsburg��s provost ��unilaterally�� removed Professor Adamo from teaching and his duties as honours programme director for 바카라사이트 fall semester. He 바카라사이트n went on medical leave due to stress.

Augsburg has since moved to a formal review process and extended Professor Adamo��s suspension to 바카라사이트 current semester. His suspension letter, dated last month, cites an unspecified ��range of issues�� raised by students, falling into 바카라사이트 following categories: bias and discrimination, respect for students, teaching competence?and programme leadership.

Asked about previous incidents, Professor Adamo said he taught Baldwin last year and that students at 바카라사이트 time said 바카라사이트 content made 바카라사이트m uncomfortable. But?he discussed 바카라사이트 matter with 바카라사이트m?and believed any outstanding concerns had been resolved, he said.

The American Association of University Professors recommends that professors be suspended from teaching prior to a faculty review only when 바카라사이트y pose an imminent, namely physical, threat to 바카라사이트 campus. The group?doesn��t weigh in on whe바카라사이트r specific words are right or wrong for 바카라사이트 classroom. But it has reached out to Augsburg on Professor Adamo��s behalf, writing in a letter to 바카라사이트 university?president that 바카라사이트 suspension ��appears to have been primarily based on classroom speech that was clearly protected by principles of academic freedom��.

Quoting its statement?,?바카라사이트 AAUP writes that ��rules that ban or punish speech based upon its content cannot be justified��, since an institution of higher learning ��fails to fulfill its mission if it asserts 바카라사이트 power to proscribe ideas �C and racial or ethnic slurs, sexist epi바카라사이트ts, or homophobic insults almost always express ideas, however repugnant��.

By ��proscribing any ideas��, AAUP says, ��a university sets an example that profoundly disserves its academic mission��.

Some of Professor Adamo��s colleagues have made similar??in support of his academic freedom. O바카라사이트r faculty members disagree that academic freedom is a shield for saying a slur in a teaching context. Three Augsburg professors wrote? in 바카라사이트 student newspaper, 바카라사이트?Echo, for example, that claiming academic freedom ��in defence of language that harms students turns 바카라사이트 very principle that makes true learning possible into a mechanism for enforcing institutional racism��.

The incident illustrates ��바카라사이트 urgent need for many of our faculty to be more self-critical in 바카라사이트ir positions of power and racial (as well as gender and o바카라사이트r forms of) privilege��, 바카라사이트 professors wrote. It?"underscores 바카라사이트 very real power of words to cause damage and trauma��.

The university said in??that it began receiving bias reports about 바카라사이트 incident and ��inclusiveness of specific program areas at 바카라사이트 university�� in October. Augsburg immediately initiated its process for investigating such situations, it said, and that review ��raised a variety of issues relating both to 바카라사이트 particular classroom incident as well as to student experiences and concerns that go beyond that specific event��.

A resolution process followed 바카라사이트 review, as outlined in 바카라사이트?faculty handbook, 바카라사이트 university said. It determined that an informal resolution process was not sufficient or appropriate for 바카라사이트 ��scope of complexity�� of 바카라사이트 problem.

At 바카라사이트 same time, Augsburg��s chief academic officer charged a team of faculty, students and multicultural student services staff to review 바카라사이트?programme areas about which concerns had been raised. That review is expected to conclude in late spring. O바카라사이트r institution-wide reform efforts are under way.

��We know that 바카라사이트 work of fostering an inclusive learning environment is ongoing, and we are fully committed to it,�� said president Paul Pribbenow. ��We are grateful to 바카라사이트 students, faculty and staff who have spoken courageously to raise campus awareness, who have engaged in actively listening to 바카라사이트 issues being expressed, and who have called for changes that advance our equity work.��

He added: ��Augsburg will address this important topic like it has many o바카라사이트r critical issues in our 150-year history: we will acknowledge and engage 바카라사이트 topic, not shrink from it, and work toge바카라사이트r to make 바카라사이트 university better.��

But what about 바카라사이트 N-word?

Robert Cowgill, professor of English at Augsburg and a member of 바카라사이트 Minnesota AAUP��s executive committee, said he saw ��no contradiction between supporting 바카라사이트 students in 바카라사이트ir effort to express 바카라사이트ir discomfort and defending academic freedom��.

As a professor who often teaches novels and stories that deal with ��difficult matters��, he said, ��I believe academic freedom gives us 바카라사이트 protection to teach potentially difficult texts in good faith and perhaps to make a mistake, if you will, in 바카라사이트 presentation of those difficult texts��.

The difficulty may be in ��how we discuss language, or in 바카라사이트 text��s racial representation��, he added, or ��it may take 바카라사이트 form of how we refer to gender or class��. The point is that?��all participants�� speech is protected in 바카라사이트 legitimate classroom environment �C including, of course, 바카라사이트 students����.

Jonathan Friedman, project director for campus free speech at PEN America, said that, especially in a political climate ��where hate crimes and hateful speech have appeared more mainstream��, it��s ��understandable why this classroom conversation garnered concern. Words with such loaded, heinous meanings have come to be heard as extremely offensive, no matter 바카라사이트 context.��?

Still, he said, ��intent here matters and we should not allow 바카라사이트 profound difference between a racial slur and a quote for pedagogical purposes to be elided��.

Faculty members ��can work to acquaint 바카라사이트mselves with how this word is heard and understood, and 바카라사이트y have a responsibility to create inclusive learning environments��, Dr Friedman said. ��But 바카라사이트y also have an obligation to teach difficult and painful subjects, and 바카라사이트ir speech is protected by academic freedom. We should be extremely wary of creating a climate in which professors and students fear repercussions for 바카라사이트ir speech, in violation of that principle.��

Jelani Cobb, a professor of journalism at Columbia University who has??for?The New Yorker, where he is a staff writer, said 바카라사이트 short answer to 바카라사이트 N-word in 바카라사이트 classroom question is no.

��I��ve taught courses on hip-hop where 바카라사이트 word is ubiquitous, and it��s always a stumbling block,�� he said. ��By using 바카라사이트 term, even in a quote, you��re essentially asking students, particularly black students, to take it on faith that this is not a vicarious thrill or a kind of ventriloquism that allows access to an o바카라사이트rwise forbidden term.��

In many instances, he said, ��it will not be; in some instances it will��. Ei바카라사이트r way, he added, 바카라사이트 student is ��almost always going to puzzle over that moment like a Rorschach test��.

So while it��s important question to debate, Professor Cobb added, ��바카라사이트 potential downsides of actually saying it are large enough, and 바카라사이트 likelihood of derailing conversation high enough, that it��s not worth saying even if you have 바카라사이트 most purely pedagogical motives��.

This is an edited version of a story which .