He called him a white barf bag? Big deal.
Posted on 12/14/2006 11:19:40 AM PST by Sopater
SPOKANE, Wash. -- A Washington State University assistant professor who used a vulgar racial term during a heated political dispute with Republican students was "immature" and "thoughtless," but his actions did not constitute discrimination, a new report concludes.
John Streamas has also called WSU a "racist university" and contended that some say WSU should stand for "White Supremacist University," said the report from the university's Center for Human Rights.
"I certainly don't see the university as bad as all that," said Raoul Sanchez, director of the rights center at the Pullman-based school.
The report was given to the parties involved in the dispute, and a copy was released Tuesday by Dan Ryder, the student who complained to campus officials, saying he had been insulted.
The report directed some blame for the incident toward WSU's College Republicans, who on Nov. 2 erected a 24-foot-long stretch of chain-link fence on campus as a show of support for the Bush administration's plan to build a fence on the border with Mexico.
The fence drew a crowd of protesters who engaged in heated arguments with College Republicans, and the videotaped showdown garnered national attention, especially on conservative radio and television broadcasts.
During the dispute, Ryder said Streamas, an assistant professor of comparative ethnic studies, called him a "white (solid waste)-bag."
College Republicans demanded that Streamas be fired for saying that, and have said the incident was an example of bias against conservative views on campus.
University President V. Lane Rawlins said last week that Streamas would be reprimanded, but not fired.
"One utterance of a faculty member in the heat of discussion is not the kind of thing for which you terminate someone," Rawlins said.
Earlier, Streamas has acknowledged using the term, but said it wasn't directed at any individual. Last month he called the fence a provocative and racist symbol, and compared it to Nazis carrying a swastika through a Jewish neighborhood.
The report said it was unwise for Streamas to have made the comment, which it called "immature, intellectually unsophisticated and thoughtless." But a single such utterance during a robust debate did not, by itself, constitute harassment, discrimination or intimidation, the report said.
Streamas, who was born in Tokyo, did not immediately return Associated Press telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment Tuesday.
The report quoted what it said was an unsolicited voice mail message Streamas left for investigators: "This is a racist university. Many of our students say that WSU stands for White Supremacist University.
"I don't care about the hurt feelings of one white person. The feelings of one little hurt white boy who's got all his white-skinned privilege are nothing compared to the hundreds of people he offended with his racist fence," the voice mail said.
The report said that Ryder objected immediately to the term and that Streamas apologized, and then the two continued to debate.
"The precise definition of the word `(solid waste)-bag' is unclear, but complainant and respondent agree that it is a derogatory term," the report said.
Ryder disagreed with the center's finding.
"I feel that a person who instructs in a department that preaches equality and diversity and accepting all ideas is not fit to instruct in that department if he can't even have that tolerance for other people's views," said Ryder, who is from Olympia.
Ryder said Tuesday he is considering pursuing legal action.
The center does not have any power to discipline employees, and can make only suggestions for corrective actions, Sanchez said.
"It's not our role to take sides," he added. "The reality is never as clean as one side or the other. We simply try and be fair to everyone."
The university must remain a place where many viewpoints can be expressed, Sanchez said.
"The best cure for offensive speech is more speech," he said.
Are colostomy bags white?
For later.
Fortunately for the teacher, maturity is not a requirement for tenure.
"...Streamas, an assistant professor of comparative ethnic studies, called him a "white (solid waste)-bag."
Thank goodness this man isn't an English lit professor or some such since his vocabulary is quite elementary...and yes... immature.
Okay. So, a professor using a racial slur against whites is being immature but a white professor using such a slur is racist?
"The best cure for offensive speech is more speech," he said.
?? I thought it was a visit from the rev-rund and a big check under the table. Oh, that must just be when minorities are offended.
Truly ironic: Dan Ryder, who is from Olympia.
He called him a white barf bag? Big deal.
Fixed it.
So the Republicans' exercise of free speech is to blame for some professor then utilizing their free speech to spew a racist epithet? I'm sorry, but the professor is 100% responsible for his own behavior here.
can you say "white wash"?
I think ya can!
Uh, the actual letter had things like paragraphs and punctuation...Not sure why those were lost in the pasting...Sorry about that.
had the races been reversed the situation would have a very different outcome.
Source:
http://libarts.wsu.edu/ces/john_streamas.php
Biography
Born in Tokyo during a polio scare and raised in post-industrial southwestern Ohio, John Streamas is the first person in his family to complete high school. He earned undergraduate and master's degrees in English. He taught various writing courses in various schools for more than sixteen years before earning a PhD in American Culture Studies and a graduate certificate in Ethnic Studies at Bowling Green State University. His research and writing have earned a grant from the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, the American Studies Association's Wise-Susman Prize, and his university's Distinguished Dissertation Award. He is also one of six "New Voices in American Studies" featured in a University of Wyoming symposium. He and his wife Valerie Boydo keep three cats, thousands of books, and hundreds of goofy toys.
Publications
Streamas has published stories, poems, journalism, and reviews. Among his published critical work are studies of assimilationism and tokenism in university culture, Karl Yoneda and Japanese American activism, the teaching of class in introductory Ethnic Studies courses, Melanesians in Terrence Malick's film The Thin Red Line, and history and memory in two films about Japanese American wartime incarceration.
Research interests
Streamas's interests include the racializing of poverty, the racializing of wartime cultures, race and geography, constructions of Pacific peoples in American popular culture, "war brides," race in children's culture, the imperative of a narrative theory of race, and the prospects for cross-racial solidarities.
Teaching interests
Streamas teaches introductory Ethnic Studies and Asian Pacific American Studies as well as Asian Pacific American literature, culture and power, theories of race and ethnicity, and Asian Pacific American women. He hopes to develop courses in race and war, race and geography, race and poverty, and race and university policy.
Turn-ons: Nerf, bobble-heads, The Patch, cephalopods, world peace.
Turn-offs: War, poverty, hyphens.
I fear for my Republic.
FMCDH(BITS)
Teaching interests
Streamas teaches introductory Ethnic Studies and Asian Pacific American Studies as well as Asian Pacific American literature, culture and power, theories of race and ethnicity, and Asian Pacific American women. He hopes to develop courses in race and war, race and geography, race and poverty, and race and university policy.
Looks like he is hung up on race; and is determined to perpetuate racism, as long as it only impacts on the white race.
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