UCLA professor suspended after he refused to cancel exam for black students

[Bt1 5,213]

Its important to note that the request didnt even come from the black students. 

[berlinforme 5,385]

Did he say anything racist? If not, one could argue he is insensitive to the struggles of his students, but is that really a reason to suspend him? Especially if that request specifically didn't come from the black students themselves. 

[HEARTSTOP 3,154]

I think anyone that's not racist has trauma with this whole situation? I'm not even from the US, and just last night I had nightmares about police opening fire on the streets. Everyone is affected by the civil unrest.

They should request for postponing everyone's exams if that's what they're worried about. Asking to cancel only black students' exams sounds like they pity them. A "poor you for being black" kinda deal.

[Fuffy 1,049]

The prof was right at the end of the day. It disappoints me how institutions just suspend/fire someone when there's controversy rather than try to address the issue. It's this mob attitude our generation has that's really going to delay our progression in the future. We're all so desperate to agree with the GP that we don't mind if someone loses their earned livelihood over a comment that was read incorrectly. 

Ultimately it's education that will help achieve true racial equality for black people in the long-term. And part of that are taking assessments so they know how to improve their learning. But apparently this non-black student doesn't actually respect black people and assumes they haven't seen any of this before. 

The only exception I can think of is people who personally know Floyd - they might need some grade leniency. But it's highly unlikely anyone in the class would have known him. 

 

 

[Guest]

the fact that it wasn't even black students asking him to cancel the exam..

[HorusRa2 5,005]

I don't agree with this. The exams should not be cancelled. You could make a case for the exam to only cover material from before the protests but there would be no reason to argue that they be cancelled for anybody.

[Monster647 444]

Yeap, America is officially doing the "Race War" side quest while the rest of the world is fighting against a global pandemic. 

On another note, policy makers of the world should start looking into injecting the notions of rationality and truth as values above dogmas that are being instigated through sentimentality of unsubstantiated moralistic stances. I would rather not go through a secular revival of Catholic Inquisition. For simpletons, that refers to stuff like Galileo being judged by Catholic Church because the proven truth that solar system was not world-centric but heliocentric was offensive to the Catholic doctrine where at the end, Galileo was actually forbid from both holding the idea and teaching it... 

The controversy is over an email exchange. A non-black student citing this period of turmoil asked for considerations for black students. The student asked for "shortened exams" and "extended deadlines" for final assignment and projects.

Klein response was a stream of questions including, "Do you know the names of classmates that are black? How can I identify them since we've been having online classes only?" and "Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian? What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half?"

Apparently, it would suffice if professor said 'no' instead of showing the fallacy in dumb student's logic... 

[Queen of The Night 54]

america has lost the plot 

[ThisGuyTony 34,847]

The article states he was suspended for his response to an email, not for refusing to change the policy:

 "Do you know the names of classmates that are black? How can I identify them since we've been having online classes only?" and "Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian? What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half?"

Either way, someone got offended over the response...

[Florian 20,017]

9 minutes ago, ThisGuyTony said:

The article states he was suspended for his response to an email, not for refusing to change the policy:

 

 

Either way, someone got offended over the response...

He's right about pointing out the huge issue that would be the cancelation of the exams. That's plain stupid. The administration would have had to determine whether someone is "black enough" or not. That's more racist than anything that professor has said

[Wet Fire 8,360]

What 

[uo111 5,282]

4 hours ago, berlinforme said:

Did he say anything racist? If not, one could argue he is insensitive to the struggles of his students, but is that really a reason to suspend him? Especially if that request specifically didn't come from the black students themselves. 

Yes, he suggested that white students are more traumatized than black students because they might “think they are racist.” 
 

In other words, he is a piece of ****.