Posted on 02/03/2008 1:34:05 AM PST by forkinsocket
BOSTON—A longtime Brandeis University professor says he has been the victim of "vindictive persecution" by school administrators after he was found in violation of the university's nondiscrimination policy for describing a racist word in one of his classes.
Politics professor Donald Hindley, who has taught at the Waltham school for 47 years, had a monitor placed in his classroom and was asked to undergo sensitivity training after he told students in his Latin American politics class last semester that Mexican migrants are sometimes referred to pejoratively as "wetbacks," according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which is aiding his case.
A student complained to the administration, according to the foundation, which in October found that Hindley had made "statements in class that were inappropriate, racial, and discriminatory."
Hindley also received a letter from Provost Marty Krauss in which he was threatened with termination and told a monitor would observe his classes until Krauss determined he was "able to conduct (himself) appropriately in the classroom."
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education claims that Hindley's free speech rights were violated and his academic freedom was encroached.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Political Correctness has already rewritten our fairy tales, and then they rewrote history. Now they’re trying to rewrite modern history, current events, and umm... the English language.
What a bad, bad, man.
“Political Correctness has already rewritten our fairy tales, and then they rewrote history. Now they’re trying to rewrite modern history, current events, and umm... the English language.”
Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.
A so-called “tolerance troupe” came to a local high school and used the “N” word from the stage to promote “tolerance.”
They angered a lot of students and the principal didn’t give a rip, because they were promoting “tolerance.”
“Brandeis professor under fire for description of racial epithet”
The headline is misleading. At this point it’s more accurate to say that Brandeis is under fire for violating a professor’s free speech rights.
What he said is true, when I was a kid in Texas, we did not know the term undocumented worker, so the term wetback was used in private conversations.
Last time I looked at a map, Mexico was considered part of Latin American, though the Mexican border seems to have moved north as of late
I wonder if he would be under such scrutiny if he referred to Native Floridians pejoratively as "crackers"
Mexico is in North America.
If describing a pejorative is considered so offensive then the college better start burning all the dictionaries in the library and prohibit them on campus. Not to mention the books where pejoratives are used.
Given a bit more power, the Provost of Brandeis, Mary Krauss, would be the type of person sending the untermensch to the gas chambers.
I wonder if there would have been an uproar and sentencing to sensitivity training if the professor had referred to “paddy wagons” during his tenure?
Mexico is in North America.
Yes, Mexico is in North American but it's considered part of Latin American.
In most common contemporary usage, Latin America refers only to those territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail:, most of Central and South America, plus Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.
Source: Wikipedia
You are being politically correct by not stating that the term nigger was used. You are promoting the same line of reasoning that has a professor jammed up because he said that the term wetback is sometimes used to describe illegal Latino aliens.
If you are fearful of giving a factual rendering of what was said you are supporting political correctness.
Right on. You wrote "Latin American" and I was thinking Central Amreica. (Too early, need more coffee.)
You use an unreliable source.
Welcome to the USSA, comrade. You must learn to love Big Sister.
Political Correctness has already rewritten our fairy tales, and then they rewrote history. Now they’re trying to rewrite modern history, current events, and umm... the English language.
Orwell wrote, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
PC ~ written before the inculcation in american academia!!!!
Here's one: Latin American Network Information Center
If that's not good enough, I can't fix ignorant
Drink up
Very strange. I think it’s safe to assume that most of the students had never heard of the term “wetback,” which, for one thing, was rarely used in the Northeast where most of them probably come from, and secondly, is somewhat dated and hasn’t really been in general use for a long time. So I think explaining the term to them is certainly reasonable.
But what’s reason got to do with it?
I still use it in public conversations. In Texas since this is a personal gun carry state, people do not physically cahllenge others in their exercise of free speech.
In most of the Rio Grande there is water flowing most of the year. Ever wade acoss waist deep water. You get your back wet!
Sounds like some northern gringos need to get a life.
The left is trying to destroy one more White male who does not belong to a government-sponsored victim group.
Everything that a White male does is subject to the scrutiny of the thought police, and the White male will always be found guilty.
As another poster says, Al Qaeda is the least of our worries.
What is you guys’ point? You’re both right — Mexico is in “Latin America” and Mexico is in “North America.” It’s not something to fight about.
In a PC world where reason is abandoned to be replaced by pluralism so that the historic reality that "wetbacks" are from Mexico and is a pejorative term is now a crime
Maybe I should use the “F” word in a post, but I have no problem with censoring in this matter or in the case of the “F” word.
Its so hypocritical because if I were non-white I could use the “N” word with liberty and not be criticized.
Examples like this make me worry for the future of this grand experiment. Seems we are going to multi-culti ourselves into extinction.
If the professor was attempting to educate, then the student who complained is the one who needs ‘re-education’.
I’m sick to death of the idiots and apologists who have been successfully rewriting history and civics texts for the past 50 years or so. The substance of education, beyond the basic principles of arithmetic, reading and writing is to build critical thinking skills, not indoctrinate to a state standard.
As we’re told, if we choose to ignore (the truth of) history, we are doomed to its repitition. Sad...we know what is right, but still choose some other path.
Lock and Load.
It just about sums up the situation.
No fight, just clarification.
We have no clue up here as to what is coming with the Chicanos and all. Yep my home town is a little hamlet on the bank of the Rio Grande, El Paso.
I must have missed something. Is there a debate the proper way to refer to Mexico?
Yes, some people are debating it. I don’t see a reason for debate. Some people call it part of Latin America. Others call it part of North America. Both are right....
Puts me in mind of the Mamet play, “Oleanna” (which I had the pleasure of seeing in its original run). STAY AWAY from the film version with William H. Macy, however.
Send him to the cornfield.
Political Correctness will destroy this nation.
What the Brits, Japanese, Communists and Nazis could not do with the cost of many lives, PC will do without firing a shot.
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