Professor fired because he mixed up names of 2 black students

Discussion in 'Race Relations' started by kazenatsu, Dec 14, 2021.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Fordham 'fires a white professor who mixed up the names of two black students in class' | Daily Mail Online

    They came into class late and he addressed them using the wrong names which "offended" them, likely because he's white and "they all look alike to him".

    After class, Chantel Sims and another unnamed student emailed Trogan to express their frustration with the professor's mistake, explaining that they believed the mix-up was due to their skin color, according to the university paper.

    Trogan responded by emailing the entire English class addressing the situation that he described as an 'innocent mistake,' which he blamed on a 'confused brain' because the students arrived to class while he was in the middle of teaching

    'The offended student assumed my mistake was because I confused that student with another Black student... I have done my best to validate and reassure the offended student that I made a simple, human, error. It has nothing to do with race,' Trogan's first email read.
    Trogan said the Composition II class was 'centered specifically and explicitly around issues of justice, equality, and inclusion,' and noted that he has spent his 'entire life' dedicated to those issues.

    Not enough apparently...


    Notice how easily these hyper-progressive schools are willing to fire professors to satiate complaints of racism.
    These days a professor accused of racism in any form, no matter how slight, might as well be accused of child molestation. The school wants to immediately severe their ties with that person and not be associated with any "stain". Questions of fairness to the accused or even rational thinking are tossed out the window.

    Looks like some of these professors are getting thrown under the bus and spit out by the insanity spun off from their own ideology.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2021
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  2. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    At least the professor didn't mistake their gender.
     
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  3. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Lost in this will be the fact that two blacks arrived late.
     
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  4. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Maybe that professor couldn't tell the difference between Tyrell and Tyrone?
     
  5. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

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    This is information from your article that you failed to mention. This is just a small snippet here because there is so much info in the article yet you boiled down the entire event to race. Did you wonder what was in the email Trogan sent his students after the event? All we know about the email was the one line summary from Trogan. Did you wonder what he said at the video conference? How about the fact the university said it was the email rather than the name mix up as the reason for the firing? What was in that 9 page email? I don't think I have ever sent a 9 page email. Given this single article I would not be ready to pass judgement for either side. There is probably a lot more to this story than we know but the last thing anyone should be doing is using tidbits to stoke the racial fires with so little facts.

    He said the university cited the email he sent after the incident rather than the name mix-up as the main reason for his termination

    Trogan responded by emailing the entire English class addressing the situation that he described as an 'innocent mistake,' which he blamed on a 'confused brain' because the students arrived to class while he was in the middle of teaching.

    After his termination, Trogan sent an email again, this time a nine-page letter to his 80 former students explaining his view of what happened. The university has since told him to refrain from communicating with the students.

    He, (Bob Howe, assistant vice president of communications), told the New York Post that Fordham 'takes personnel matters very seriously,' but claimed 'media representations regarding this issue do not reflect the facts in Dr. Trogan's case.

    On October 5, the university held a video conference with the professor and he was terminated effective immediately several weeks later.

    'I was never informed of the charges against me, nor of the nature of the investigation of which I was the subject,' Trogan said in an email to his former students after he was let go. 'I was kept completely in the dark.'

    Trogan said that the university cited the nine-page email rather than the name mix-up as the main reason for his termination and that he did not show 'proper development' from the conversation on October 5.
     
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  6. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    they were late to class, to even complain about the name mistake was ridiculous, just apologize for being late and sit down

    though I agree with the school, his reaction to it was over the top too, so maybe there was more to it then we know
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2021
  7. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Mixing up the names of BIPOC students is like 9/11 all over again.
     
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  8. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    What could have been in that first email that would cause the university to fire him?
    It sounds more like the professor was trying to explain an innocent mistake.

    The second email was sent only after his termination, so cannot be the reason why he was terminated.

    Just because an employer cites a reason for termination does not mean it is the actual reason. Sometimes that given reason can be completely ridiculous and everyone knows it is really another reason.
     
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  9. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

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    Sure. I would accept that argument BUT my problem was not that I believed the University/Employer, it was your post.

    1. The University said the 'media representations regarding this issue do not reflect the facts in Dr. Trogan's case.' "national regulations forbid the university from discussing personnel matters and therefore can not elaborate on what he claims is being misrepresented."
    2. The professor say he does not know why he was terminated but said the University said it was because of the 9 page email and that he did not show 'proper development' from the conversation on October 5. (He never claimed it was because of racist reasons or the name mixup. (The 9 page email comment did confuse me too because he said he sent that email after termination. This makes me think something is inaccurate here.)
    3. The Daily Mail has a click bait headline for sure bring in all of the culture warriors BUT at least in the body of the article they presented a ton of information about the case which would lead any rational person reading to think there is more to it than just the headline.
    4. Your post on this forum essentially took the headline and ran with it. You focused on the racism, which none of the main participants alleged and you added snarky comments about gender, blacks and stereo-types about black names.

    I think anyone reading this article objectively would come to the conclusion that is a lot more to this that we are not privy too. What was in the email? What was said at the meeting? What do they mean by "proper development"? Was the 9 page email sent after or before termination? What was in the 9 page email? So much is going on here but you used the headline to stoke the racial divide and fight for your crusade.
     
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  10. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    I can't recall a time when I was sent a mass email by my professor about events involving a concern brought up by two students who's names got mixed up. This became a big deal, because he decided to use the email system to highlight and embarrass them when they corrected him about their own names. His conduct in turning the spotlight back on them was driven by his motives. I don't think his ego took well to being corrected in class by two late students. Its called a power trip, guys, and I can't help but wonder when if a Napoleonic streak has shown up a time or two before this incident and such incidents are sitting in his personnel file.
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2021
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  11. Jolly Penguin

    Jolly Penguin Well-Known Member

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    I find this new term "BIPOC" to very offensive. Why have people stated using it?
     
  12. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    I'm pretty sure it just refers to anyone except white people.
     
  13. Jolly Penguin

    Jolly Penguin Well-Known Member

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    But even then, it singles out BI from the other POC.
     
  14. VotreAltesse

    VotreAltesse Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I have light autism, and I have sometimes difficulties to tell people apart, it's true that I have more difficulties to tell apart that are not of my ethnic group.
    Thankfully, that craziness didn't reached too much my country yet, but if it does, that kind of people would add much more difficulties to the difficulties I already have.

    I have the impression that there is many autistic people that have a huge repulsion for woke people, but that's quite normal, when social interactions are already complicate, people who are trying to make them more punishing, more complicate and more unpredictable, you won't appreciate that kind of nutsies.
     
  15. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I will tell a quick story. One time I was watching a Chinese movie, and at one point one of the characters supposedly took his mask off to reveal that he was someone else.
    The only problem was that the new face pretty much looked the same to me as the one before.

    I had to rewind twice, and, looking carefully, the second face looked just a little bit different than the first, but they were still pretty hard to tell apart and not that obvious. At least to me.
    I am assuming the difference should have appeared obvious to any Chinese audience, otherwise that would be very weird to have a mask reveal and other characters acting shocked in response to what they saw.
     
  16. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    not sure how it compares to 911

    but does seem there is more to this story
     
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  17. btthegreat

    btthegreat Well-Known Member

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    'light autism' did not have squat to do with this professor's decision to make an example out of the two students by writing and sending a mass email to every single student registered in that class regarding this episode involving those two students. that email served only one purpose and that was to draw attention and embarrass them for correcting him about their mistaken identities.

    this is about the emails he composed and sent, not the mis-identification.
     
  18. Pants

    Pants Well-Known Member

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    By what is presented, it sounds a little ridiculous - but as @christiansoldier stated - there is a ton more to the story than a name mix up. If they fired him for that alone, I'd say he has a great case to sue the school and win. But I think the nine page email might contain more proof that he was not up to the task...but unless that email is released, we don't know.
     
  19. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Cultural revolutions require a constant churn of terms and approved thoughts.
     
  20. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    France seems to have some level of resistance to the woke infection, as opposed to Anglosphere countries. My personal theory on this is that since English is rather unique among European languages in that it has a non gendered definitive object: The. In French and other languages, the definitive objects are gendered based so wokeism is much more of a rape of the language than it is in English.

    Sorry, but we're patient zero.
     
  21. VotreAltesse

    VotreAltesse Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    To be fair there is a part of influence of french post modernism into that.

    I think the biggest difference is that we have some hostility to define ourselves by religion or ethnic group, it's almost a cultural taboo. You won't find any information toward race on french ID cards, state racial classification are forbidden, french news paper would rarely define the ethnic group of people. Wokism live also on that cultural ground where people are defined by their ethnic group. Tensions focus much much more on a religious ground here.
    Ironically today some wokes are very criticfull of the color blindness of the french state when historically color blindness was critized by the most extremist members of the far right.
     
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  22. Jolly Penguin

    Jolly Penguin Well-Known Member

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    I think it is one major way to distinguish liberal liberal from illiberal woke faux liberal.
     
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  23. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    In the old days, shaming students in front of the class for being at fault making mistakes or being late was commonplace.
    You'll remember when teachers used to make students sit in the corner and wear the dunce cap?

    These days it seems teachers aren't allowed to correct students or try to personally address bad behavior.

    I hear these days, many professors are even afraid to criticize black students, for fear of being seen as racist.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2021
  24. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    It's the same thing in the US.
    But that is an off topic discussion.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2021
  25. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    Looks like it was you who missed a crucial detail.
     
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