Un-Safety School
In a recent op-ed piece, Nat Hentoff reminds us why he’s the kind of leftie Jewish icon Heeb should be profiling. Apparently, Brandeis University, named after a reasonably prominent defender of free speech, threatened a professor with termination for using the term "wetbacks" in class. The fact that the Professor Donald Hindley used it in a perfectly reasonable context (explaining that it was a derogatory term applied to Mexican migrants) didn’t seem to hold much sway with Brandeis Prexy Jehuda Reinharz and other university muckety mucks, who made Professor Hindley—with nearly fived decades on the faculty—take a "sensitivity training course." While Brandeis may be rolling over in his grave, Jewdar couldn’t be prouder of President Reinharz, whose steadfast stupidity in the face of common sense serves as a powerful rejoinder to the antisemitic stereotype that all Jews are intellectually gifted.
comments
submit a comment10.12.08 at 3:10 pm
No, Jewdar. If someone uses a derogatory term — even in historical and educational context, this is a wonderful opportunity for the rest of us in the group to out do each other in expressing exasperation and anger at racism generally by screaming at the person who leveled this term.
Additionally, all historical pictures need to be photoshopped to reflect our present day preference for respectful terms. For instance, a picture of a Nazi sign that forbids “Juden” from entering needs to be edited to say, “people of the mosaic persuasion may not enter.” Obviously, smaller fonts will need to be used. My point is, though, that the past is no excuse for looking at it from the present.
10.21.08 at 12:10 am
Oh, surely we can all do with a bit of extra sensitivity training :P