When a USC business professor used a Chinese-language example in his communications class that sounded like a racial slur, Black students complained that their mental health was damaged (“Controversy over USC professor’s use of Chinese word that sounds like racial slur in English,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 5). As a result, he was forced to “take a short-term pause” from teaching the course.
I wonder what’s going to happen to these students when they hear other words after graduation that offend them for one reason or another. It mattered little that nearly 100 USC alumni, most of whom are Chinese, came to the defense of the professor. The dean of the Marshall School of Business couldn’t apologize enough for the professor’s sin.
Freedom of speech in academia no longer exists. It was once the only place in this country where words and ideas could be expressed without fear of punishment and censure. Woe to the professor who uses the synonym for stingy.
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