File this under “you can’t make this up”: Princeton University canceled a class on free speech – after a student was offended by something the professor said.
Professor Emeritus Lawrence Rosen was teaching an anthropology class on free speech, when he used “the n-word,” to make a point about violence vs. offensive speech.
Rosen said, “Which is more provocative: A white man walks up to a black man and punches him in the nose, or a white man walks up to a black man and calls him [the n-word]?”
Apparently, his students felt very strongly that the latter was, in fact, more provocative: Rosen was immediately asked by a couple of students to apologize, which he refused to do. Several students then proceeded to walk out of the class, and two later filed complaints with school officials.
Rosen, an award-winning anthropologist who has been teaching at Princeton for 40 years, had used the same phrasing for years in his class, but this was the first time students took offense. He had also used, for the same analytic effect, anti-American and anti-Semitic slurs, but students apparently only had a problem with his use of a racial one.
The university, to its credit, defended Rosen’s use of an uncomfortable word to spark debate about difficult topics.
“The values of free speech and inclusivity are central to Princeton University’s mission and critical to the education we provide to our students,” the school said, in a statement. “The conversations and disagreements that took place in the seminar led by Professor Rosen are part of the vigorous engagement and robust debate that are central to what we do.”
The school added that it would continue “to look for ways to encourage discussions about free speech and inclusivity with the students in Professor Rosen’s class and the campus community more broadly.”
Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber echoed those comments while speaking at a previously-scheduled town hall meeting with students, saying, “I respect Professor Rosen’s decision about how to teach the subject in the way that he did by being explicit and using very difficult words.”
The chair of the anthropology department, Carolyn Rouse, also defended Rosen, saying that he had been trying to give “students the ability to clearly state why hate speech should or should not be protected, using an argument other than ‘because it made me feel bad.’’ (Which was, obviously, unsuccessful.)
But, despite the support from his higher-ups, Rosen decided to pull the plug on the class.
“I have reluctantly decided to cancel this year’s offering of Anthropology 212, Cultural Freedoms,” he said, in an email to students.
AAN Staff
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