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Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

451–460 of 540 posts

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#451
post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pointing out that the right is more closed minded. > Unless, of course, you're saying there's something inherently out-group about LGBT Yes, it's called being in the minority[0]. I'm not sure what gymnastics you're playing trying to make "out group" equivalent to "something wrong", but that's your addition to the conversation, and not something I ever suggested. Let me repeat that: there is nothing morally wrong…

> given that you appear to identify as part of "the right". What leads you to believe this? Because I'm asking probing questions about the left? Is asking questions in order to learn a trait of someone on the right, and not the left? Big if true, and I'm surprised that you're promoting this viewpoint. > To suggest such a thing is closed minded. First of all, this doesn't follow from any evidence in the discussion so…

> You: > inherent in an outgroup

> What I actually said from the very beginning: > inherent outgroup

Yes, when I said "this argument is closed minded", I wasn't talking about LGBT people. I was talking about your generic argument. (This is obvious from the context, since when I originally stated it, I stated "there is nothing morally wrong about being in an outgroup.", note no mention of any specific outgroup. But for the specific example of LGBT people, I had previously noted that I did consider LGBT people to be an outgroup due to their minority status, and took objection solely and specifically to your equivocation between out-group-ness and wrongness).

Note that, more than once, you draw an equivalence between outgroup and morally wrong. I'll quote you doing it twice: "other than the out-group, i.e., the morally wrong group", "something inherently out-group...something inherently wrong". That's twice where you write the same phrase substituting "out-group" for "[morally] wrong". I can draw no other conclusion than that you consider being an out-group to be equivalent to being morally wrong. This is a prejudiced view, and I stand by this claim. Note once again that the specific example is irrelevant. Believing a moral failure on someone due to their status as a member of an outgroup is closed minded.

> You: > You are now claiming that lgbt people are not an outgroup of the left

> What I actually said from the very beginning: > The left is universally supportive of LGBT rights.

To clarify: I'm not suggesting, and did not ever suggest that you claimed that the left was discriminatory toward LGBT people, nor that LGBT people were an outgroup of the left. I claim that you did not originally qualify your statement as the LGBT community being an outgroup specifically of the left, and only began to later. (I should note that this too is obvious from the context, since I included the words "the qualifier", which you removed when you quoted me, and I italicized the qualifier "of the left" when I quoted you, making it clear what I was referring to)

The broader context here is that I'm claiming that the left defends LGBT rights, despite the LGBT community being an outgroup. It appears that you might claim something like the LGBT community isn't an outgroup of the left (but this is an essentially circular argument), so this is not showing open-mindedness. I wanted to avoid any such classes of arguments so pointed out this semantic shift early. You instead just didn't address the arguments I made at all.

> What I actually said from the very beginning: > I don't think it [being morally wrong] applies to LGBT

I never said you did. To reiterate:

Believing a moral failure on someone due to their status as a member of an outgroup is prejudiced. The specific example doesn't matter. The line of reasoning is inherently closed-minded. It ascribes moral failings to the other solely by virtue of them being other.

And one again, you introduced this equivalence with your comparisons between outgroup-ness and moral-wrong-ness: "the out-group, i.e., the morally wrong group"

Please don't accuse me of lying again. I did not, and I have not. And just for good measure, I'll once again present you the argument I've made, in its entirety, that you've still failed to address:

The right considers lgbt people to be morally wrong. The left does not. This makes the right more intolerant than the left.

Feel free to ignore everything in my post except that argument and chalk it up to one big misunderstanding. But please address that 3 sentence argument, because it demonstrates, quite concretely, the lack of open-mindedness on the right.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#452
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "cultural prohibition" of words is generally bad, extending to words that are forbidden in the US. The idea of "privileged words" that only a subset of people can utter is ridiculous to me. It's particularly egregious when it is essentially American imperialism on language used in other countries. > To answer your question more directly: The onus is mostly on the people who were subjugated to continue sufferi…

I don’t believe it’s the case for the Chinese phrase in the original post, given that it’s such a basic filler word that is ingrained in the minds of all speakers. In the case of the Norwegian word, which actually has the same etymology and definition, with just a connotation that differs regionally, I think people can’t plead ignorance in good faith once they are made aware of the modern global context. This is espe…

Yeah, and etymologically the n-word shares the same origin as "neger", "negro", and "negre" which all originate from the latin "niger." Ultimately their usage in Norwegian, Spanish, French, and Latin are not the same as the n-word in English, which is used in very specific contexts and almost always in reference to people.

> I think people can’t plead ignorance in good faith once they are made aware of the modern global context.

It's not a global context. It's an American context. Chinese people aren't thinking about the n-word at all and a black American living in China would be expected to adapt to the reality that the word is neither offensive nor is it on Chinese people to adjust their behavior to make them feel better. The issue is once again with the person who takes offense.

Forcing people to change their entire language to accommodate a group (especially one that is completely foreign) is asinine.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#453

> Last Thursday in your GSBA-542 classes, Professor Greg Patton repeated several times a Chinese word that sounds very similar to a vile racial slur in English. Understandably, this caused great pain and upset among students, and for that I am deeply sorry. It is simply unacceptable for faculty to use words in class that can marginalize, hurt and harm the psychological safety of our students. We must and we will do b…

And suddenly the president's call to defund universities for "radical left indoctrination" sounds a tiny bit less crazy.

Apart from the impact to the professor and his students who have been denied a learning opportunity, this is the larger cultural problem - validating the simplistic "other side". Both teams are rallying around straw men for each other to attack, driving polarization over essentially nonsense. Meanwhile anyone arguing for sanity gets labeled as an other for not toting the unreasonable party line. Despite claiming to be opposed to one another, Cancellers and Trumpists are just two faces of the same destructive force.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#454

I think it's important to note that nowhere in the article (nor anywhere else I can find) does it state that the professor was "suspended". Rather, it only says that the professor will "no longer be teaching this class for the remainder of the semester". I think this is an important distinction because it leaves the door open to the possibility that: 1) the professor voluntarily stepped down 2) the professor will ret…

I think it's important to note that nowhere in the article (nor anywhere else I can find) does it state that the professor was "suspended".

The action was asymptotically close to a suspension (so in attempting to draw a distinction, you're basically splitting hairs).

In other words, there's a real possibility that the Dean had the following conversation with the professor:

More likely that conversation went like this:

"Hey, I know this wasn't intentional on your part, but this is quickly becoming a PR nightmare and I'd like to nip it in the bud. If we were to go by common sense and the basic ethical and intellectual principles this institution claims to uphold, we'd simply explain to the student that (being young and naive as they are) they're clearly jumping the gun and not seeing the forest for the trees -- and are doing themselves way, way, way more harm in delusionally believing themselves to have been 'microaggressed' by what happened, than by even the worst case version of what they fantasize as having happened. But that would require a modicum of ethical integrity and backbone on my own part, which, being the stuffed shirt that I am, you know I don't come even close to possessing. So to make my life simpler, would you mind taking the hit, stepping down from your post and basically allowing everyone to believe you were an insensitive ass (if not in fact an outright racist) for a while? BTW you'll still get paid - and this being USC, that's all anyone really expects you to care about anyways."

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how those who want to find the cause of their failure in other people's success eventually deal with the fact that Nigerian immigrants into the USA are far more successful compared to African Americans while they are visually indistinguishable from them. Will the Nigerians be accused of having some form of privilege? Will they be called 'white' just like Asians are now often considered to be 'white'? Will sa…

It's not so hard to understand. The issue is the legacy of slavery, and Nigerian immigrants aren't dealing with that.

Slavery has occurred in almost every society over the years, until the last two or three hundred years, including in Nigeria

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Nigeria

See "Black rednecks and white liberals" by thomas sowell for more info (Thomas sowell is a black american economics professor and writer, for any in the audience who decide what is worth reading based on the skin color or ethnicity of the author)

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#456

So in Korean, the word for "you" is 니가 (pronounced "nee-gah"). Example usage: 니가 언제 먹었어요? (When did you eat? "Nee-gah un-jeh mug-uss-uh-yo") I can't help but wonder if the use of this word would also elicit a similar reaction... EDIT: I briefly forgot this, but there is a similar Korean word "내가" which is "me" or "I", and pronounced "ne-gah". Example usage: 내가 이 밥을 먹었어요. (I ate this food. "Ne-ga ee bap-uhl mug-uss-uh…

Here's a fight(more like an assault on the elderly) that broke out between a black American on a South Korean bus because the elderly people, who probably don't speak a word of English or know English racial slurs, referred to him as "you" in their own language in their own country: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/88xlz4/a_bl...

Black fragility.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#457

I think it's important to note that nowhere in the article (nor anywhere else I can find) does it state that the professor was "suspended". Rather, it only says that the professor will "no longer be teaching this class for the remainder of the semester". I think this is an important distinction because it leaves the door open to the possibility that: 1) the professor voluntarily stepped down 2) the professor will ret…

Completely disagree. The professor did nothing wrong and shouldn't have to take the fall for anyone.

It's ultimately a question of ethics if the scenario is as you play it out. Is it ethical to effectively declare your guilt when you are innocent.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#458

I think it's important to note that nowhere in the article (nor anywhere else I can find) does it state that the professor was "suspended". Rather, it only says that the professor will "no longer be teaching this class for the remainder of the semester". I think this is an important distinction because it leaves the door open to the possibility that: 1) the professor voluntarily stepped down 2) the professor will ret…

Even if that was the case, have you actually read the letter? It alone is so ridiculous that it's worth condemning.

Hell, I think this bit does it alone:

"It is simply unacceptable for faculty to use words in class that can marginalize, hurt and harm the psychological safety of our students"

Like, what? Are they going to outright ban all foreign words that could potentially be misunderstood as offensive? Will Kant need a rebranding to be allowed in class again?

It's unbelievable ethnocentrism and the fact that they actually have the gall to claim that they're doing it as a part of addressing systemic racism has to be the cherry on top. This is literally the same line of thought that leads to asking others to anglicize their name because it is offensive.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#459

Warning: I'm not sure how to formulate that properly, I hope no-one gets offended to much. I think one of the worst thinks you can do is to be afraid of a word itself. But that's exactly where it has come to. It often seems that just pronouncing the n* word or spelling it out is highly offensive. But IMHO this is super bad for the people who are offended. If there is a problem you should speak about it and this inclu…

FYI, your etymology is wrong. The n word derives from spanish and latin for black (this itself possibly derived from the proto-indo-european for "night"). While Nigeria and the Niger river come from local African languages for "river", although that pronunciation itself is probably influenced by the same latin-for-black. What eventually became Nigeria was a British company founded in 1886, well after the n-word was in common use for anyone of dark skin.

Re: Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

#460

I think it's important to note that nowhere in the article (nor anywhere else I can find) does it state that the professor was "suspended". Rather, it only says that the professor will "no longer be teaching this class for the remainder of the semester". I think this is an important distinction because it leaves the door open to the possibility that: 1) the professor voluntarily stepped down 2) the professor will ret…

Even if that was the case, have you actually read the letter? It alone is so ridiculous that it's worth condemning. Hell, I think this bit does it alone: "It is simply unacceptable for faculty to use words in class that can marginalize, hurt and harm the psychological safety of our students" Like, what? Are they going to outright ban all foreign words that could potentially be misunderstood as offensive? Will Kant ne…

I agree with you. My claim is that there's "less reason to be outraged at the Dean".

If the professor was executed for this, for most people, there's reason to go to war.

If the professor was fired, for most people, there's reason to be outraged.

If the professor was voluntarily placed on leave with pay, well, maybe you still find reason to be outraged, but less so than the aforementioned scenarios.

In any case, most people in this thread are assuming the professor was fired, and that's incorrect.

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