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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is a two-time Pulitzer nominee and a recipient of a MacArthur fellowship. And he has to leave the university for showing an Oscar nominated film. The university should defend him. Instead they’re too scared of accusations of racism to support their own scholars.

This is beyond stupid.

I really don't get the issue with blackface (and I'm Black btw). A character is black, is played by a white person (who colors his face black to play the role). Why is that by itself racist? People are such sensitive pu**ies these days! I bet most Black people don't care about this (none of my friends do). It's the woke White crowd..

I think you are as Black as Thomas Jefferson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a path for redemption for him? If so, how must be atone?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2021/10/university-of-michigan-professor-steps-down-from-class-after-blackface-incident.html%3foutputType=amp

“The controversy surrounds Sheng’s showing the 1965 movie Othello on Sept. 10 to his undergraduate music composition seminar class. The film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play stars Laurence Olivier as the title character of the Moorish King, and features Olivier in blackface.”

The question should be: Is there a path to redemption for the university?

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez, it's simple. Don't show things that use blackface. It's offensive, even on Olivier. Are there no other Othello productions he could show?

Yup — unless you’re teaching about blackface. This was a music composition class. Not clear why he was showing this film, but presumably whatever point he was making could have been made in a different way (using a different example, separating audio from video). And you always make strategic decisions like this when teaching — you don’t want the noise to drown out the signal.

You have absolutely no idea what his pedagogical goal was here and whether showing the Olivier Othello was important to meeting it.

[Anonymous]

Does this mean Hamilton is banned too, or is that ok?

[Anonymous]

I don't think that the professor should have been called to task for this. I have seen the Olivier Othello and I found it very disturbing.

He not only wore blackface, he painted the inside of his mouth red, and went to Jamaica to "learn to move like a black person."

I would use this movie to show how our society has changed since the 1960s. I don't know how he was using it in his music comp class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez, it's simple. Don't show things that use blackface. It's offensive, even on Olivier. Are there no other Othello productions he could show?

Yup — unless you’re teaching about blackface. This was a music composition class. Not clear why he was showing this film, but presumably whatever point he was making could have been made in a different way (using a different example, separating audio from video). And you always make strategic decisions like this when teaching — you don’t want the noise to drown out the signal.

You have absolutely no idea what his pedagogical goal was here and whether showing the Olivier Othello was important to meeting it.

I can’t even imagine a pedagogical goal in a music composition class that would involve showing this film clip early in the term without a set-up. And, if he had such a goal, presumably his apology letter would have explained it. It did not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez, it's simple. Don't show things that use blackface. It's offensive, even on Olivier. Are there no other Othello productions he could show?

Yup — unless you’re teaching about blackface. This was a music composition class. Not clear why he was showing this film, but presumably whatever point he was making could have been made in a different way (using a different example, separating audio from video). And you always make strategic decisions like this when teaching — you don’t want the noise to drown out the signal.

You have absolutely no idea what his pedagogical goal was here and whether showing the Olivier Othello was important to meeting it.

You also don't know the first bolded part, therefore you don't know if the second bolded part is true. That's just your spin on it.

[Anonymous]

Bari Weiss did a fabulous podcast on this type of situation. Her podcast is called Honestly. I can’t remember the episode title.

[Anonymous]

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

Acknowledged what? Showing a classic to a bunch of pearl clutching babies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this mean Hamilton is banned too, or is that ok?

Liberals love it = ok!

[Anonymous]

Insane. Schools and students have become such a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP here, but that's probably because it's behind a pay wall. Why do posters do that?

I dont understand. I don’t have a paid subscription and was able to access it.

[Anonymous]

Any chance professional jealousy played a part in this take down of this esteemed individual?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless the teacher also wore blackface before showing the movie, this is stupid.

It's exactly like the controversy in "The Chair" on Netflix.

Stupid, I agree.

The professor ought to have warned students that Olivier wore blackface in the movie.

But are they so sensitive little snowflakes that they can't endure the fact that racist behavior was very common in the past?

I watched the movie Holiday Inn not long ago, and was quite surprised to find a scene done in blackface. I saw the movie years ago, and didn't remember that scene. The movie was made in the 1930s, I believe. Yes, the scene is offensive, but I enjoyed the rest of the movie, which is not overtly racist.

Values and behaviors were different in the past. We don't have to throw out everything because people behaved then in ways we now find offensive.

But yeah, the professor ought to have warned his class about the blackface. What a tempest in a teapot!!

[Anonymous]

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

He wasn't fired. He stepped down from teaching that particular class.