The Rutgers professor said she would certainly have stepped in, but this was an after-class Zoom session, during the professor’s virtual office hours. Three students attended the Zoom session, and now there’s a nationwide petition targeting the white, middle-aged woman who uttered the N-word while quoting a 1993 legal opinion.
People have lost their minds. In an after-class Zoom discussion group at @RutgersLaw with 3 people, one student read from a 1993 legal opinion that included a racial slur. Zoom session was recorded and leaked & some felt unsafe. Student had to get lawyer. https://t.co/8eR4tqk2Rc
— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) May 3, 2021
The New York Times reports:
“At the height of a ‘racial reckoning,’ a responsible adult should know not to use a racial slur regardless of its use in a 1993 opinion,” states the petition, which has been signed by law school students and campus organizations across the country.
…
Recent faculty meetings — including one held the day after a police officer was convicted of killing George Floyd — have been marked by heated exchanges, participants said. A racial healing session that was organized by students was filled with raw emotion. The student who uttered the slur is distraught, professors said, and has enlisted the help of a lawyer known for her expertise in free speech and due process.
…
Any public use of a racial epithet can carry a risk of steep professional consequences.
The head of the journalism department at Central Michigan University was fired last year after using the same slur when quoting from a lawsuit. An Emory University law school professor was placed on administrative leave for more than a year after using the word in discussions with students about race.
So Jeffrey Toobin can get caught masturbating during a Zoom session and keep his job, but this student’s worried about expulsion?
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They haven't lost their mind. They know exactly what they're doing. It's about power and using this clout to benefit from unearned moral superiority.
— Eckythump (@Eckythumped) May 3, 2021
Prediction: Reasonable people will lose this debate. Consensus among the unreasonable will form and that will become the oral code. Absurdity will rule.
— MrElderPotatoHead (@BigCharlieMack) May 3, 2021
One of my biggest pet peeves is this “unsafe” stuff. There are people in this world who live in legitimately unsafe places, and we’re breeding the most mentally soft kids in our society by shielding them from anything they remotely find offensive that they meltdown this stuff
— Mike #FireHowie (@Boston__Sucks) May 3, 2021
I guarantee that the only person who actually feels unsafe here is the woman who read the opinion.
— VictoryRed (@FreddyMagnus) May 3, 2021
We need a legal definition of “safe.”
— Ampzilla (@Terraphant) May 3, 2021
"unsafe?" Why? Because there was no beat behind it like in I dunno A MILLION rap tunes? #insanity
— Powerhowz Pops is decidedly independent (@PowerhowzDistro) May 3, 2021
‘Unsafe’, the infinitely elastic claim that somehow resonates with the gullible and soft-headed of us.
— card1986 (@Card1Graham) May 4, 2021
“Some felt unsafe.” That is a calculated tactic on the part of trained socialists intended to put an end to open discussion, on their terms. It should, accordingly, be dismissed out of hand as the pretense that it is.
— ebergan (@EberganEpbjr) May 4, 2021
We should all feel unsafe if this kind of nonsense continues.
— Ray Bryan (@r4ybry4n) May 3, 2021
This was a direct quote from a legal document. How will these students ever become lawyers if they are so easily offended by citations from legal documents?
— Dominic Burford (@DomBurf) May 3, 2021
How will they become much of anything?
— Jack Cornelius (@JackPCornelius) May 4, 2021
I don't think the word was even being used as a slur in the opinion.
It seems it was a criminal conspiracy case in which someone used the word as referring to pals/buddies.
— Barbara James (@BarbaraJames75) May 3, 2021
And the student warned the audience before she read the quote
— steph stags🧢 (@ShebaStags) May 4, 2021
This,having read all the way through the article,finally was revealed as the quoting of a quote of a black man involved in the case. Thus the full context nullifies any malicious intent whatsoever.
— John Ellis Porter (@JEllisP) May 3, 2021
Come on Rutgers! Really?
— DrGiordanoBruno3rd – AMERICA is an OLIGARCHY (@GBruno3rd) May 3, 2021
So anyone who QUOTES something offensive – even in the context of disparaging it – is guilty of committing the offense? The line needs to be drawn here and now.
— ⓘ Your mask is a Prius for your face (@unashamedusa) May 3, 2021
Again and again, situations like this don't have anything to do with hurt feelings. It's all passive-aggressive behavior.
— Captain Mel Toxic, Man of Action ♂ (@CaptainMelToxic) May 4, 2021
The thing is… no one actually “felt unsafe.” We are now in the second generation of college kids who’ve learned that “I feel unsafe” are magic words that confer status to the “victim,” and more importantly, make the grownups obey.
— Will Collier (@willcollier) May 3, 2021
And perhaps the larger point is the trend towards trained weakness.
— Lionel Mandrake (@LMandrakeJr) May 3, 2021
Pro tip: When choosing an attorney, try not to hire someone this easily triggered. It won’t go well.
— Monkeywrench (@Monkeywrench7) May 3, 2021
Also, avoid the attorneys who have signed on to the petition targeting the student.
Related:
'This is truly shocking, even for @Slate': Slate suspends podcaster indefinitely without pay over *discussion* about the n-word https://t.co/qD3KFQ3Omt
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 23, 2021
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