There are times when that little "N" word can get us in all kinds of trouble. My good friend Brown Dartanyan got me to dig out my racism track shoes when he sent me the following story from down the road in Maryland:
"Towson University promptly fired an adjunct art professor after he characterized himself as "a nigger on the corporate plantation" in a classroom discussion last week.
Allen Zaruba, a professional artist who has taught at Towson for 12 years, used the racially charged term to describe his employment rights as an adjunct professor during a broader discussion of representations of power in contemporary art. A student reported him to the provost's office after the lecture, delivered on Monday, February 22, and that Thursday, the art department's interim chairman, Stuart Stein, told him over the telephone he had been dismissed.
In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Zaruba said he deeply regretted using the phrase as soon as he had uttered it, and had apologized to his students when their class met last Wednesday. At the same time, however, he also said the university's decision to dismiss him without a formal hearing illustrated the broader point he was trying to make, about his status as someone who has few workplace rights and can easily be fired.
"I just finished talking to a lawyer," he said. "I have no ability to appeal anything." [Story]
Yes Allen, I am not sure how much rights you have as an adjunct prof. That's why some folks will literally kill for tenure.
"A nigger on a plantation" huh? Hey, I feel you Allen, I think quite a few of us in A-merry-ca are feeling like "A nigger on a plantation" these days. But we don't just go telling that to a class full of students; even if they are in college.
But you know what I like about Allen? He regretted using the phrase as soon as he "uttered" it....As opposed to when, Allen? As soon as you thought it? Let me stop.
I am going to surprise some of you: If old Allen is a good teacher and his students (black and white ) want him to stay; I say let him stay.
Hey, it's not like lots of people we encounter in the majority population -present company excluded of course- every day don't have that word right at the tip of their tongues. (Watch FOX NEWS one evening between 5-10) So Allen slipped, it happens every now and then.
And let me preempt all the e-mails and comments I will get from the you say it so why can't we crowd right now. Yes, we say it among each other, but no, you cannot. Well, you can say it among yourselves, just don't say it in public; or, god forbid, around us.
Good luck Allen, I hope you land on your feet. Maybe FOX NEWS can use an in- house artist.
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