Comments on: Towson professor fired for using the N-word: his real offense

By: Josh Keogh

Josh Keogh — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 04:24:45 +0000

excellent article. I look forward to reading more.

By: eo

eo — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:15:00 +0000

These events add up to a sorry tale of people behaving badly, serially. Having known a fair number of white guys without being one myself, I’ve encountered the tendency — rare in most, absent in a few, but reflexive in an annoying minority — to appropriate metaphors from history’s most savage episodes of suffering and injustice to describe their personal circumstances (say, in line at the MVA, or earning less than a woman colleague). I don’t know this teacher. People who do know him say he’s a good-hearted and usually well-spoken person; if they’re right, he’s still got those assets, and I wish him a full and speedy recovery from his firing, after a trip to the syntax garage to fine-tune his choice of metaphors.

I’ve been an adjunct myself, a gig that required me to take a part-time job delivering flowers to support myself, so I know he’s right on the substance of his complaint. But getting a lousy salary with no prospect of tenure is not comparable in any way, not even a poetic one, to lifetime (“tenured”?) status as a piece of property with no protection from arbitrary cruelty.

I wonder if anyone on the Towson faculty will be brave enough to teach “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” under this newly articulated “rule,” which I suspect was a reflex rather than an actual standard.

By: s

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:12:18 +0000

He was an adjunct. No job security, little to no benefits, etc., etc., etc.

Learn about how academia works before making such ignorant assumptions. He’s a wage slave, like just about everybody else in America. Despite having a PhD.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:11:08 +0000

Towson was completely within its legal rights to fire Zaruba. Whether he should have been fired is an entirely different discussion, on two fronts. First, is the whole adjunct professor approach to teaching an appropriate way to staff the teaching positions at the college/university level? Towson is only doing what the vast majority of schools do, which is hire part time professors in order to avoid paying benefits, dealing with tenure issues etc. It’s the free market system at work, and its efficacy in education is debatable. Second, was the incident itself worthy of firing? Only in a knee-jerk, abnormally pc environment .

By: Susan Krieger

Susan Krieger — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:22:10 +0000

At TU no one has ever lost their job for seducing young female students even when going to court.(A part of TU history) Al Zaruba is a truly wonderful member of the Baltimore Art Community and has given so much. His creativity and love of art totally outweighs a slip of the tongue. His motive was not to degrade any individual and certainly not a racially motivated comment. This is an outrage of a University that fumbles for real ideals and the message that they send to the students is a mean mean mean message! There should be an organized protest from the Art Community to express our outrage.

By: Heylucas

Heylucas — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:38:51 +0000

The phrase was “CORPORATE plantation” -it seems to me that a distinction between slavery (antebellum) and Zaruba’s intention is fairly clear. However, I can’t condone the use of the n-word as a casual expression by anyone.

By: Fritz

Fritz — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:33:31 +0000

I think it says a lot about Towson for them to release a professor for this reason. It shows that they are not confident in their professors or the positions they take. It shows they are not secure enough in their standing as a University to maintain institutional face despite the actions of a professor. I sincerely doubt JHU or UMD would have taken such actions. And so, yes, he was adjunct and they have every right to fire him–but to me it just reinforces Towson’s place among Maryland Universities.

By: AZ

AZ — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:27:08 +0000

Oh, give me a break. Had he not used the “word,” his analogy would not be coming under such scrutiny. This article would not have been written if he hadn’t said it, because it wouldn’t have been news and no one would care. Had he said “I’m a slave on the corporate plantation” would you be taking him to task for an “inappropriate analogy?” I hope not. How many times have you heard the word “slave” used in an exaggeratory way to express being overworked and/or having no choice in a matter? It’s the same as saying you’re “starving” when hungry, or “dying” of thirst: if someone called you out for disrespecting those who are actually starving in the world, you’d roll your eyes and think the guy was an overly sensitive, PC policeman because you of course didn’t intend to disrespect anyone. And clearly Zaruba didn’t intend to disrespect the historical struggle of slavery either, and to think that anybody has the luxury to choose their words and analogies so carefully as to not offend anyone in the moment is ridiculous. We have the luxury of hindsight to pick apart and criticize his statement, but, like anyone speaking freely in the moment, he did not have that luxury and he deserves some grace. Putting this whole thing under a magnifying glass only serves to discourage free speech by making people afraid to ever make a mistake.

By: Steve T

Steve T — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:21:15 +0000

Perhaps TU could be seen as overeacting. Perhaps there are more egregious examples of racism on compus on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter. As a adjunct professor Zaruba knew he served at the pleaseure of TU and could be released for any reason without recourse. TU received a complaint and wasn’t going to wait around to see if it snowballed. It’s TU’s perogative to react as they see fit. End of story. Move on.

By: david eberhardt

david eberhardt — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:58:40 +0000

I would say the persons responsible for Zaruba’s firing should be fired- whole thing reflects badly on the tigers. Zaruba should be reinstated.

Towson wants to get upset about racism? I’ll bet some more egregious examples of racism could be found than Zaruba’s.