Editorial: Duquesne prof's slur use was wrong choice

To say or not to say.

It isn’t a question. It’s a decision. And it’s not something new. It’s something very old.

Today’s political climate has a tendency to divide people sharply over everything, but language is a real sticking point. While some are calling out verbal offenses, others are bristling at politically correct policing.

The sides ebb and flow with the words. No one has cornered the market on being hurt or angry. And a word that was once OK can change in a heartbeat.

But while someone might be unaware of the impact of some words — crazy, moron, articulate — there is one that should require no explanation.

We won’t use it, but you know exactly what it is. It starts with an “N” and that’s all the description it ever needs.

The N-word is no microaggression. It has been scrawled across threatening graffiti and accompanied promises of death. It has undermined the lives of an entire population for generations. It is the very soul of aggressive language.

And that is why that unmistakable word has no business in a classroom.

A Duquesne University professor was placed on paid leave Friday after using that word in an educational psychology class last week. Not only did he use it, but he encouraged others to do so as well. Video clips of the virtual class were published to Twitter, and the reaction was swift.

“I’m giving you permission to use the word, OK, because we’re using the word in a pedagogical sense,” Professor Gary Shank is heard saying. Shank, who is white, cites examples of the word’s common use, back when he was young. “Could we do that nowadays?” he asked. “Absolutely not.” Ipso facto, he did.

The problem is, the use of the word, even in the classroom setting, isn’t Shank’s to license. A college professor shouldn’t have to have that explained. For a college lecture, whatever the purpose of the class was that day, simply referring to “the N-word” would suffice.

Any number of Black hip-hop artists and writers use the N-word and its variations liberally in their work. But that in no way gives license for a white writer, artist or professor to deploy the word, even in a clinical setting or with the best of pedagogical intentions.

“To be clear, I believe that there is never a time, pedagogically or otherwise, for a professor to create a hostile learning environment,” School of Education Dean Gretchen Generett said.

She is right.

Shank did not just say a forbidden word. It wasn’t an unplanned utterance, like a shout when stubbing a toe. It was an orchestration, complete with a presentation slide that said “Race (from a cultural sense).”

Saying the word was a decision. And it was the wrong one.