Would a trigger warning before showing 1965 Othello film have saved this professor?

[Anonymous]

The professor "agreed" to "step away" from teaching this music composition class for the remainder of this semester.

He may have genuinely felt that he could not effectively teach for the rest of the term and the choice to have someone else finish out the semester may well have been his decision.

He wasn't let go of the University of Michigan ... at this time.

I know I would be hesitant to go back to THAT class that started the whole Twitter mob against me. No matter how staunchly I personally defend free speech and loathe this type of cancelling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is McCarthyism now, pure and simple. Only coming from the left instead of the right.

I'm a lefty, and don't know anyone who would do this to such a professor.

I don't know WHO makes these stupid decisions.

Middle aged people are learning that they do not fit the definition of liberal by today’s standards. A recent DCUM thread called the Clinton presidency conservative.

My concern is that this professor and others like him don’t seem to have a way to redeem himself. It’s a one and done deal.

But it's not a one and done deal - they say "he stepped down from one of his classes"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is McCarthyism now, pure and simple. Only coming from the left instead of the right.

I'm a lefty, and don't know anyone who would do this to such a professor.

I don't know WHO makes these stupid decisions.

Middle aged people are learning that they do not fit the definition of liberal by today’s standards. A recent DCUM thread called the Clinton presidency conservative.

My concern is that this professor and others like him don’t seem to have a way to redeem himself. It’s a one and done deal.

But it's not a one and done deal - they say "he stepped down from one of his classes"

We’ll see. Seems like he is tainted. Will students want to attend his classes? Time will tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But if he had said this film is a story about race written in the 1600s(?) filmed in a different era that was not as sensitive to blackface depictions as today … or something much more polished than i can cobble together … would he still be in hot water? Is this on the unofficial banner shows/books like like the Cosby show?

That explanation would have satisfied me. I remember watching the Merchant of Venice in college (90s) and my professor explained about antisemitism beforehand. He didn’t just spring the offensive stuff on us. This was a public flagship with few Jews or people of color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is McCarthyism now, pure and simple. Only coming from the left instead of the right.

Nonsense. It is not true. This is the second time today I've posted that I'm a dem. Cancel culture is over the top, and this professor's situation is ridiculous. Students are adults! Keep it up and the navel-gazers will be too fearful to make meaningful impacts in the big world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He should have addressed and acknowledge it. He shouldn't have been fired.

I think he did. He wasn't defiant.

That is true according to the article. The top PP didn’t bother to read the short article linked in the OP.

The link in the OP is behind a paywall, but this article suggests he showed it on the very first day of class. So, by definition, he did not address the matter ahead of time. https://www.michigandaily.com/news/academics/following-blackface-incident-professor-bright-sheng-takes-step-back-from-teaching-smtd-composition-course/

Students were also frustrated that his "apology letter" turned into a self-defense by listing every time he had cast an actor of color in one of his shows. By turning the apology into a defense, particularly by tokenizing the folks who he'd cast in his performances, he dug the hole deeper.

Honestly, stepping away for one semester is fine. Hopefully he will do better in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is McCarthyism now, pure and simple. Only coming from the left instead of the right.

Nonsense. It is not true. This is the second time today I've posted that I'm a dem. Cancel culture is over the top, and this professor's situation is ridiculous. Students are adults! Keep it up and the navel-gazers will be too fearful to make meaningful impacts in the big world.

?? So what part is nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is McCarthyism now, pure and simple. Only coming from the left instead of the right.

Nonsense. It is not true. This is the second time today I've posted that I'm a dem. Cancel culture is over the top, and this professor's situation is ridiculous. Students are adults! Keep it up and the navel-gazers will be too fearful to make meaningful impacts in the big world.

Do you know what McCarthyism is?

[Anonymous]

Just FYI, if you use "cancel culture" as though it's a real thing, I am going to know you're not seriously engaged in understanding much of anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just FYI, if you use "cancel culture" as though it's a real thing, I am going to know you're not seriously engaged in understanding much of anything.

??? It's pretty well accepted term and understood by its critics and defenders alike. So I don't know what you're talking about. Obama decried it himself a couple of years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just FYI, if you use "cancel culture" as though it's a real thing, I am going to know you're not seriously engaged in understanding much of anything.

Why do you think this isn’t “cancel culture”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is McCarthyism now, pure and simple. Only coming from the left instead of the right.

I'm a lefty, and don't know anyone who would do this to such a professor.

I don't know WHO makes these stupid decisions.

Middle aged people are learning that they do not fit the definition of liberal by today’s standards. A recent DCUM thread called the Clinton presidency conservative.

My concern is that this professor and others like him don’t seem to have a way to redeem himself. It’s a one and done deal.

The Clinton presidency WAS conservative—that was the irony of the right attacking him so fervently. Bill Clinton campaigned on a moderate platform to try to win back all the Dems they’d lose to Reagan and failed to recover with candidates like Mondale and Dukakis. He basically eliminated welfare, vastly expanded the prison pipeline, eliminated trade protections, and knocked down public housing projects. He balanced the budget. The most liberal thing he did was give us UNPAID family leave (yay?). It’s insane that the right has been able to recast the clintons as some sort of crazy leftists. Arkansas would not have elected him as a crazy leftist.
— I am a middle aged liberal women who voted for Clinton twice and also remember writing letters in protest about some of his policies while in college and law school.

[Anonymous]

Did the professor NOT declare CURRY to be racist, first?

Did that trigger Professor Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst of the University of Vermont?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just FYI, if you use "cancel culture" as though it's a real thing, I am going to know you're not seriously engaged in understanding much of anything.

Why do you think this isn’t “cancel culture”?

Did someone lose a job that was essential to their survival? Does that person have no hope of getting a similar position that will allow them to continue to function in their chosen field?

Or some someone lazy/sloppy about following developments in their field, or deliberately offensive, and are they receiving consequences as a result?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just FYI, if you use "cancel culture" as though it's a real thing, I am going to know you're not seriously engaged in understanding much of anything.

??? It's pretty well accepted term and understood by its critics and defenders alike. So I don't know what you're talking about. Obama decried it himself a couple of years ago.

This poster must be the one that always says if you use the word “woke” you are automatically not worth an opinion. Woke people invented wokeness! WTF.