Student Successfully Orders Her Professor to Recite an Apology, Attend Racial Bias Training – Opinion

Chicago once sang that it’s hard to say you’re sorry.

But that was 1982, and the difficulty level looks to have lowered — just consider how common it is.

Portland, Oregon presents a unique opportunity to add another public apology.

First: An instructor from the University of Michigan drew the fury of his students by showing them a 1965 movie.

The cinematic iteration of Shakespeare’s Othello Sir Laurence Olivier was the star.

Just before the National Theatre Company’s production, Sir Laurence must’ve gotten some sun:

Not everyone in two-time Pulitzer-finalist Bright Sheng’s class took to the tan.

Professor Bright had survived Mao’s China, but he couldn’t escape America’s social conscience.

A frazzled freshman spoke to the school newspaper.

“I was stunned. It is a school that promotes diversity. They make sure they know the history of POC in America. I was amazed. [Bright] would show something like this in something that’s supposed to be a safe space.”

Despite the teacher’s letter of apology, he was replaced as head of the class.

The blackface-ish controversy is continuing its carnage.

At Oregon’s Lewis & Clark College, Associate Professor of English William Pritchard showed students a clip from Othello for discussion.

Five days later — on October 11th — he shared with the class an article about Bright Sheng.

But a safe space had been breached, and select students were aghast — among them Claire Champommier.

Claire insulted her teacher by writing a letter.

The College Fix reported that eLeven and her peer co-signed.

The missive was delivered by her to Daena Goldsmith is Associate Dean and Professor of Rhetoric and Media Studies, and Bruce Suttmeier Dean of College of Arts and Science. Karen Gross, Associate Professor of English and Chair of Department, are also Associate Deans.

Claire demanded William attend racial bias training.

Additionally, she ordered, he must compose “a well-written apology, two pages in length or longer” and read it aloud in class.

According to her logic:

“The discussion he facilitated took about half our class time, so we have reasoned there can be room made for a 3-4 minute apology.”

“This is non-negotiable,” Claire clarified.

Her professor did as she told — he emailed his mea culpa on October 14th, reciting it the next day.

Here’s some of what Professor William wrote:

“My purpose in providing a glimpse of [Othello’s use of makeup] was not to endorse the artistic or ethical choices that the film made, but I see now that giving it any screen time at all was a first step towards imparting the message that many of you took away from that day’s class, namely, ‘a message from our professor that, to him, it was sometimes okay to do blackface and other forms of whitewashing.’ …. [H]ere I apologize again for misguidedly ‘play[ing] devil’s advocate,’ as your letter puts it.”

He supposed he knew what he was doing, but now he’s better informed:

“I was, I suppose, trying to consider and understand the reasons that led Olivier to make these artistic choices. I now see why many of you took that as my ‘making room to excuse blackface.’ I was mostly interested in the broader question of authenticity in casting. Under what circumstances does an actor need to actually ‘be’ some aspect of the character they play? … The point I was trying to convey is that there are problems with the authenticity model of casting as well.”

William also claimed there is racism embedded into America’s systems, though — as seems the perplexing par for the course with such assertions — he didn’t reveal any so they may be removed:

“[T]here are huge asymmetries and structural inequalities in our systems of race and gender, and there are important reasons why opening up traditionally ‘white’ roles to actors of color should not therefore lead to white actors gobbling up the relatively few lead roles that have traditionally been available to people of color.”

Per the professor, his discussion about Bright Sheng was meant to “acknowledge that [he himself] had made a mistake in the previous class.”

“[B]ut it’s clear to me now that I messed up in my own way.”

As part of his penance, William agreed to attend “racial bias training workshops.”

Moreover, he hoped “conversations with” Claire and the rest might “help [him] avoid [messing up] in the future.”

Even so, his distressed student wasn’t wooed.

Claire confided the following to Fix:

“[H]alf of it was dedicated to defending himself, trying to reason his side once again that this wasn’t even the worst thing that could’ve been done in a classroom.”

William will also retain his classes. His job?

It remains to see.

The academic — who’s been teaching at Lewis & Clark for 18 years — thought he’d follow in the steps of the school’s namesakes and explore…ideas.

He learned an awful lesson when showcasing Shakespeare.There may be a painful, rogressive path to the truth.

Just when you think you’re free of the mob, “What light through yonder wokeness breaks.”

To be or not canceled is, according to it, no longer up to the adults in charge of our institutions.

The youngsters now have the power.

And while it may be easy to say you’re sorry…it’s hard to be forgiven.

Maybe William’s anti-bias training will do him some good. After all, “Everybody needs a little time away…”

-ALEX

You can find more of my content here:

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