Racism allegation stirs academic-freedom debate

African-American Chris Dunbar didn't hear another word after his Normandale Community College instructor cited a speech titled "Why I hate (incert n word here)." He says he didn't hear Mike Wartman, who is white and who has taught at Normandale for 22 years, say that such a speech would be inappropriate in his class. Nor did he hear Wartman list the reasons why.
Instead, Dunbar says, the incident left him angry, hurt and sad. The next day, he dropped Wartman's class, Public Speaking 1101. A week later, Dunbar filed a formal complaint with school officials, asking that Wartman be disciplined.

Wartman, however, says he has used the example in class for about 15 years without complaint. He says it's useful because it wraps the importance of topic selection, audience analysis and language into one example.
Like an explosion that launches a rocket, the incident in Wartman's class touched off a classic conflict between two bedrock principles of education -- the student's right to a comfortable learning environment vs. academic freedom.
It's a troubling conflict that has cropped up with growing frequency in recent years at colleges and universities across the country. But it's one of the first such cases at Normandale, a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system that enrolls 9,600 full- and part-time students -- about 11 percent of whom are students of color -- at its Bloomington campus.

The incident occurred Sept. 6, the second day of class, with Dunbar sitting in the front row as Wartman delivered a lecture about speech preparation.
Wartman at one point referred to George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party. Dunbar heard Wartman say that when Rockwell addressed Jews or African-Americans who would find his racist message repugnant, he effectively adapted his speech to the audience.
At the mention of Rockwell, Dunbar says, his internal warning system began to quiver. Was Wartman setting Rockwell as a good example, Dunbar wondered?
Then he heard Wartman say that years ago a student had insisted on exercising his First Amendment rights by giving a speech with the title that offended Dunbar. The words so hurt Dunbar that he began to pray and heard no more. Dunbar didn't hear Wartman say that he had failed the student for not adapting the speech to his audience.
Other students in the class say they found nothing offensive in Wartman's comments.
"Mike (Wartman) was very clear that the topic was not his opinion, and that we shouldn't use the topic in class," says Jackie Booth, a white student from St. Paul. "He was extremely clear."
"It was totally appropriate," says Quocnam Nguyen of Burnsville.
But Dunbar was deeply upset, although he said nothing to Wartman when they passed in the hall after class. Wartman says he had no clue at the time that Dunbar was furious.
Dunbar filed a complaint Oct. 2 and met with Normandale's dean of students, Ralph Anderson. Dunbar asked that Wartman be reprimanded and suspended for two weeks without pay. He also asked for posters in the building extolling the value of diversity, a written apology from the president of Normandale and $1,000 for his trouble.
Anderson is investigating. His report is expected Friday.

No matter what Normandale does, the outcome is likely to be controversial. If it disciplines Wartman, critics will charge that the school is infringing on academic freedom. If it doesn't, the college could be accused of racism.
There have been charges across the country for years that "political correctness" has eroded the free exchange of ideas, particularly in colleges and universities.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis during the summer against another MnSCU school addresses the same issue. In that case, American history instructor Jon Willand charged that North Hennepin Community College and MnSCU violated his right to free speech in 1996 when the dean removed a poster from Willand's office door, suspended him and issued a written reprimand.
The poster showed Gen. George Custer in a parody of the "Uncle Sam Wants You" ads, pointing a finger and saying, "I want you for the U.S. Cavalry ... help put down militant Sioux."
The reprimand ordered Willand to "avoid making comments ... which may be interpreted by a reasonable person as articulating or promoting racism." He was also told not to "post any other materials which may be offensive to others."
A settlement conference in that case is scheduled for the end of the month.

The Center for Individual Rights, a Washington, D.C., conservative public interest law firm, is supporting Willand. Curt Levey, the center's director of legal and public affairs, sees academic freedom as the heart of the matter in both the Willand and Normandale cases.
In state-run schools, such as community colleges, the First Amendment allows wide use of examples in teaching, Levey says. The only exception is that an instructor can't create a pervasively hostile environment.
"The Normandale example doesn't even come close," Levey says. "If you reprimand a professor for something that is clearly protected by the First Amendment, you not only violate that professor's rights but also chill the speech and academic freedom of other professors."

In a 1994 case, a federal judge ordered the University of New Hampshire to restore the job of a professor who had been suspended for sexual harassment after seven women complained about comments he made in a writing class.
Professor J. Donald Silva, a pastor at a New Hampshire church, had, among other things, compared technical writing to sex and likened belly dancing to "Jell-O on a plate." The judge said the university had violated the professor's constitutional right to free speech by punishing him.

B eyond the legal questions, the dispute at Normandale comes down to different perceptions.
Wartman, 46, is a respected teacher who's not given to using shock tactics in the classroom, according to his student Jackie Booth. His manner with his students is comfortable. He's free with a handshake, a pat on the back, gentle teasing. He obviously wants his students to be comfortable in his class.
Dunbar, 39, is equally charismatic. As a minister who works in prisons and hospitals, he's accustomed to putting people at ease. He has delivered more than 100 sermons on public-access cable TV channels 6 and 15. Even though he is warm, cordial and energetic, he took the public speaking course this fall to improve his skills.
After the second class, Dunbar was tempted to drop out and keep quiet. But, as a 39-year-old man, he says, he feels obligated to press the point for 19- or 20-year-olds who might not have the maturity to voice outrage.
"I don't buy the argument that I took this out of context," Dunbar says. "So what is the proper context? Why don't they just tell Holocaust jokes? Are you telling me you can't teach without using that language?"
Wartman says he didn't know Dunbar had dropped the class until after the complaint was filed. The teacher says he still hasn't heard from Dunbar directly. "I wish I could just talk to him about why I used that example," he says.
Would he use the example again? Wartman is unsure. "I'm torn by the effectiveness of the example. I like to use it because it clearly shows the impact of words, and it's something that actually happened, " he says. "But I also don't want to have students be uncomfortable in class."

There are some people who seem to belive the they have a constitutional right NOT to be offended. Where they get this silly idea I have no idea. They must have confused James Madison with Miss Manners.

Now I'm really confused, what if someone from a South American country and someone from an African country have a child. Is this child also African-American? Or since it is in the southern hemishpere, it must be American-African.

You raise an interesting point. Since the South American probably is a Spanish speaker (or Portuguese), that person is most likely to want to have the noun (American) before the adjective (African). So American-African it would be. Wow! What a way to further confuse an already ridiculous issue! We could start a trend of calling blacks American Africans, in honor of the Hispanics' language.

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