NY Times Op-Ed: When A Racist Joke In Higher Ed Does Not Merit Cancellation

New York Times Op-Ed:  When a Racist Joke Does Not Merit Cancellation, by John McWhorter (Columbia; Google Scholar):

There would seem to be a sincere commitment across America these days to try to listen to one another across divides. To engage nuance rather than pretending that everything is, as it were, black and white. To address discrimination without devolving into the Jacobinesque routines of cancel culture. There is an emerging consensus that while social justice is important, a certain defenestrational commitment has gone too far during the past several years.

If the aforementioned commitment and consensus are sincere, then the folks at Purdue University might consider rounding out 2022 by adopting a script that focuses on acknowledging both error — even serious error — and redemption. Maybe they already have — but especially these days, one cannot know at this early point.

The chancellor of Purdue University Northwest, Thomas L. Keon, did seriously screw up a couple of weekends ago. At a commencement ceremony, the speaker before him mentioned that he sometimes uses a made-up language with his family. Keon, upon reaching the podium, picked up this theme, barking out a sentence in what sounded like an embarrassing attempt to imitate Mandarin Chinese. He then chuckled, “That’s sort of my Asian version of his.” ...

We’re long past that kind of thing today. A Chinese person need not suffer the indignity of allowing a coarse imitation to pass as just kiddin’ around. Why Keon thought his gag would be funny in 2022 is elusive. Perhaps he thought what was funny was him, as a white guy, speaking a language obviously not native to him. But what he missed was that his imitation looked more as though he was ridiculing how people look and sound when speaking Chinese.

When video of this episode got around online, calls for Keon’s head were immediate and legion. Many saw the incident as a cut-and-dried matter of an older white man deserving immediate dismissal for not having gotten the memo about racism.

Keon quickly published an apology that included, “We are all human. I made a mistake, and I assure you I did not intend to be hurtful and my comments do not reflect my personal or our institutional values.” Purdue’s board of trustees accepted the apology.

But will this be the end of the story? Not if this narrative parallels what has happened so often in similar cases lately. Sherrilyn Ifill, a former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, has deemed the apology “utterly insufficient.” Would a different apology suffice, or is the idea that Keon committed an unpardonable sin? Purdue Northwest’s Faculty Senate and American Association of University Professors chapter are seeking Keon’s resignation. Calls on social media for him to step down have been legion even after the apology. ...

Indignation about Keon’s joke will continue, including from people of color and their allies who will process his staying in his job as contravening their version of social justice. But among the people responsible for his employment, there will surely be those who can see that he should not be consigned to retirement for one dumb joke because it was racist. In fact, those people may well constitute a majority. Possibly, in their calls for banishment, Purdue Northwest’s Faculty Senate and A.A.U.P. chapters are following the demands of just a few members.

But if people in these positions are committed both to social justice and to moderation and drawing distinctions — i.e., wisdom — then they must stand up against possible mobbish attempts to “get” Keon.

“Why is this man still in his job?!?” a tweet may plausibly read. I wonder if we have reached a point where a critical mass of responsible people will be confident enough to answer, within themselves, “Because a mature society does not wreck people’s careers because of a single gaffe, even a racially insensitive one” — and vote no on a move to performatively expel Keon from employment.

CNN, Trustees Reprimand Purdue University Northwest Chancellor For Racist Remarks, as Faculty Call For His Resignation:

The Purdue Board of Trustees has issued a formal reprimand to Purdue University Northwest Chancellor Thomas Keon in response to a racist comment he made during a commencement ceremony earlier this month, according to a statement from the board’s chairman. ...

Keon apologized for his “offensive and insensitive” comment in a statement issued on December 14. “We are all human,” the chancellor of the regional campus said in the statement. “I made a mistake, and I assure you I did not intend to be hurtful and my comments do not reflect my personal or our institutional values.”

In his statement published to Purdue’s website on Thursday, the board’s chair, Mike Berghoff, called Keon’s statements “extremely offensive and insensitive.” ...

The decision to reprimand Keon, rather than dismiss him, has spurred criticism from other faculty. In an open letter addressed to the trustees, Purdue Northwest Faculty Senate Chairman Thomas Roach further called on the university to dismiss the chancellor.

“We are not demanding his removal to punish him, we require his removal because he is not qualified to represent us,” wrote Roach. He called Keon’s ongoing role “an insult to the Asian community.”

“This decision by the board of trustees is negligent and unacceptable, and your explanation for your inaction insults our intelligence,” he went on.