Academic Freedom and Cancel Culture

[dismalist]

MIT: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/why-latest-campus-cancellation-different/620352/

Twitter -- the medium is the message.

[Wahoo Redux]

CHE: Professor removed from class for showing Othello in blackface

[Wahoo Redux]

This is the essay written by a student in the class (linked in the above article).

I cannot imagine a whinier, snowflakier bit of crocodile-tear melodrama. 

[Parasaurolophus]

This is the essay written by a student in the class (linked in the above article).

I cannot imagine a whinier, snowflakier bit of crocodile-tear melodrama.

Have you not read Bari Weiss?

[mahagonny]

Surprised, and pleased that the chair stuck up for him. I'm sure I would think twice about showing a movie like that one, (haven't seen it) but at the same time, was there not some instructional value to the experience being thought of?
In the ninth grade, my English class read Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird. Empathy was the lesson. My favorite was A Patch of Blue, a very sweet story.
Of course, I am strange. I already know that. I even like Al Jolson.

[dismalist]

From the link:

And when it comes to incidents like this blackface video that don't warrant termination, tenure prevents administrators from issuing meaningful consequences that will deter similar behavior in the future.

Think of tenure what you will, but this is at least a novel argument against it!

[Wahoo Redux]

This is the essay written by a student in the class (linked in the above article).

I cannot imagine a whinier, snowflakier bit of crocodile-tear melodrama.

Have you not read Bari Weiss?

No.

I had to Google her to find out who she is.

Sounds like an obnoxious conservative hatemongering snowflake.

[mahagonny]

This is the essay written by a student in the class (linked in the above article).

I cannot imagine a whinier, snowflakier bit of crocodile-tear melodrama.

Have you not read Bari Weiss?

No.

I had to Google her to find out who she is.

Sounds like an obnoxious conservative hatemongering snowflake.

Conservatives have been given excellent people to hate lately.

[apl68]

I'm surprised that this case has not yet been mentioned here:

Bright Sheng, Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan, is no longer teaching this semester after he showed his students the 1965 film version of Shakespeare's Othello, which stars white actor Laurence Olivier in blackface as the titular character.

Sheng, who is from China, apologized in writing for his choice after students voiced their discomfort with the blackface portrayal. But some undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty and staff members in an open letter further criticized Sheng for writing that he'd cast people of color in musical productions throughout his career.

Sheng's letter "implies that it is thanks to him that many of them have achieved success in their careers," says the student and faculty open letter, as first reported by the Michigan Daily student newspaper.

Sheng declined an interview request and did not respond to a series of written questions by deadline.

David Gier, dean of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, referred a request for comment to a university spokesperson. That spokesperson, Kim Broekhuizen, said via email that it's "important to note that Prof. Bright Sheng was not removed from teaching his seminar class this fall. The decision to have Prof. Sheng step away from that class was a decision that he and Dean Gier made together. They agreed to that approach and Dean Gier notified students in the class."

Sheng continues to provide private lessons this term and is scheduled to teach in the winter term, Broekhuizen said.

More at:

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/10/11/professor-not-teaching-after-blackface-%E2%80%98othello%E2%80%99-showing


So, nobody has been officially penalized, but the professor in question was either so contrite he felt that he must step down of his own accord, or so intimidated he felt that it was the safest thing to do.  Or maybe some of both?

I don't blame the students for being upset at the film in question, but given that the offending prof was from overseas and had not spent a whole lifetime becoming versed in American cultural debates, you would think they could have cut him slack--treated it as a teachable moment for the prof, instead of trying to bring down the roof over him.

[Parasaurolophus]

I mean, he's been in the US since 1982. That's a little longer than I've had to become versed in American cultural debates.



IMO what he should have done was flagged the blackface and explained why it was nonetheless important to view the film. That he didn't is a testament to how little pedagogical know-how we can get away with accumulating over 26 years.

[larryc]

Cancel culture FTW. http://www.montanakaimin.com/news/computer-science-prof-resigns-amid-blog-controversy/article_26e4a624-3372-11ec-93c9-b34f1f0f7532.html?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_3087608_nl_Daily-Briefing_date_20211026&cid=db&source=ams&sourceid=

[waterboy]

He's an idiot...but I thought freedom of speech protected such idiots.

[dismalist]

Freedom is always, and exclusively, freedom for the one who thinks differently.
― Rosa Luxemburg

[smallcleanrat]

He's an idiot...but I thought freedom of speech protected such idiots.

This is an earlier article from the same website: http://www.montanakaimin.com/features/ethically-bankrupt-blog/article_e652a6b8-2892-11ec-bf62-3b2f56e19994.html

So, if I've got the order of events and salient points right:

1) Prof has written a blog for years of which (until a month or so ago) his colleagues and students at the university were unaware.

2) Once made aware of the contents of the blog, which includes disparaging remarks towards women, Muslims, and LGBTQ people, the university puts the prof on paid leave began an investigation into whether this prof had treated students in a discriminatory manner.

2a) The article reports some statements from former students of this prof. Some say they aren't particularly surprised to learn he has misogynistic opinions (except perhaps at just how extreme they are). Some say they are surprised as they personally didn't notice any discriminatory behavior.

3) Prof (who had started deleting blog content when it began attracting a lot of negative attention) resigns, stating the investigation is being conducted "dishonestly" (without giving any specifics).

I guess I'm wondering:

1) whether initiating the investigation was justified given that there had been no formal complaint filed about discriminatory behavior

2) when, if ever, can or should things you write on a blog (separate from your role in your place of employment) have negative consequences at work

RE: question 1:

Is it reasonable to be skeptical that someone who expresses contempt for certain demographics is going to be willing and able to treat students and colleagues from those demographics with the same basic respect and fairness that he would with others? Would that skepticism warrant preemptive actions (like an investigation into Title IX violations)?

Suppose someone had voiced views like those of this prof in a hiring interview (e.g. "women will always make decisions based on feelings rather than logic" or "women should *not* get the same education as men, it gets in the way of their ability to attract husbands before their physical 'value' declines").

But then suppose he follows this with, "Don't worry, I'm willing to play along with this whole 'women as equals' B.S. because I know universities have to be P.C. these days. I can even be polite to the homos, even though they're ruining civilized society everywhere."

Would it be discriminatory not to hire this candidate even if there is no evidence in his work history he has ever engaged in any unprofessional behavior? Is the situation at all different if he makes it clear that these opinions are religiously based?

RE: question 2:

At what point, if any, does the discomfort other people feel after learning about your opinions (expressed outside of the workplace) justify facing consequences at work (at any level: social, institutional, legal...)?

I recall reading an article once about a parent who stopped hiring their regular babysitter for jobs after finding the babysitter's personal blog in which she wrote about how much she loathed the kids she looked after and made lots of insulting remarks about them. She had always acted kind and friendly with the families she sat for, but the parent was too uncomfortable after reading the blog to ever hire her again. Was the parent being unfair? If the sitter had been with an agency, would they have been out of line reprimanding or even firing her?

[mamselle]

I think humans are fairly integrated in the ways they bring together their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas about things with their words, actions, and ways of behaving with others.

So, in general, I don't really think anyone can filter out their inner concepts about people (hating someone's kids) from their treatment of them (at some point, it's going to come through and show, whether in masked ways or more obvious ones.

On smaller things, well, maybe--my mom taught us all to eat bananas by putting them on our cereal all the time when we were kids--although we discovered much later she hated them, so she did mask or filter her strong dislike while cutting them and serving them and feeding them to us for the more altruistic goals of good nutrition.

But in general, I think it's a kind of hubris to believe one can harbor hatred in ones heart towards a particular societal group or type of individual, and then turn around and behave kindly to them without any ill effects. They might pretend for awhile, but I just wouldn't ever trust it not to come pouring out, and quite possibly at an inappropriate, dangerous, or threatening moment to the other person, or to many other people, without warning.

It's one thing to forgive someone for something, which I believe we may all owe any repentant other--and quite another to trust them again, which I see as requiring serious self-searching and amendment of life.

I forgave my abusive former spouse, for example, but he's under a permanent restraining order.

His repeated disdain for females, for the arts, and for various things that meant quite a lot to me (all hidden or de-emphasized, or laughed off, before we were married) made it clear that he wasn't likely to change if three efforts at counseling and two times of separation weren't going to change him or lead him to want to change himself.

And anyone that puts so much time and energy into a blog that they create a persuasive world-view, based on their own biases, is deeply invested in those views and is going to be 'drenched' in them. (I'm thinking here of the term 'baptizo,' also used for baptism (a Jewish practice before it was adopted into Christianity), which originally meant 'indelibly dyed,' like a deep purple dye that won't come out.)   

And if at some point an individual who had espoused such serious dislike at some point outfitted themselves with rifles and grenades and broke into some setting where a bunch of their favorite people to hate on were gathered and let loose, the institution would have been considered to have done less than due diligence in protecting said individuals from a strong, likely danger.

Your right to swing your fist stops where the other person's nose begins.

M.