Nitwit, PLEASE!

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on April 26th, 2011

Three weeks ago, UConn Professor Benjamin Purzycki began a lecture by discussing the cultural relevance of the “N-word,” setting off a chain of events that resulted in the poor sap having to sit through “diversity training.” The sorry incident is notable here only because Purzycki tried to use standup to get his point across. A student, Ozzie Gooding, took offense. The rest of the story would be hysterical if it weren’t so tragic.

First, Purzycki told a story of how back in the day, one of his African-American coworkers used to call him the n-word. He said that his friend used the word as a term of endearment, even though he himself is white. Purzycki then displayed various instances of when the N-word is used and readily accepted in the media. The samples that he used included posters with the N-word superimposed above the images of Richard Pryor and the Pope. Finally, Purzycki played an uncensored clip from Chris Rock‘s expletive-ridden skit “N***** vs. Black People.”

Ozzie Gooding, a 6th-semester exploratory major, is one of the few African American students in Purzycki’s class. He said that he felt the professor’s presentation was unprofessional ,and that he was close to walking out of the lecture. But instead of making a scene, Gooding decided to take action later on.

How utterly brave of Mr. Gooding. Instead of challenging his professor, he skitters around campus, from office to office, from cowardly bureaucrat to cowardly bureaucrat, until, finally, he finds an operative who “takes him seriously.”

Political correctness is a joke. But not to all. To some people, political correctness is a dearly held concept and a weapon that is, unfortunately, still rather effective. We expect such nonsense like that detailed above to happen on a college campus. So many campuses these days (or so many departments within our campuses) are populated by insubstantial people who lack conviction.

And the children they are charged with educating often turn out like Mr. Gooding.

He is particularly sensitive to the N-word and believes that no one should use it. He also said that the lecture was painful because it was presented in a comedic way that made many of the students in the class laugh. “It’s hard enough being a minority in class and on campus,” Gooding said, “so if you’re gonna talk about race, be serious about it.”

Emphasis ours.

We’d like to remind our readers that this all took place in America. A “college-educated” person thinks that no one should be allowed to use a word that he doesn’t like. And he wasn’t told to take a hike. He was instead, accommodated.

In the comments under the article, he says, “Showing the Chris Rock comedy skit, and the other racially offensive things is totally inappropriate, racism is not a joke.”

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