A George Washington University professor recently stepped down from teaching “Anti-Racist STEM Education” after reading the N-word aloud during the class when discussing the 1964 Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With.
The incident occurred Jan. 18 at GWTeach University, the institution’s teacher training college geared towards STEM majors. The incident was brought to the attention of the university after students filed numerous complaints, as reported by The Hatchet.
Professor Alicia Bitler reportedly said the N-word during a discussion of the painting that depicts Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to attend a white school in Louisiana. In the painting, the N-word can be clearly seen in the background in the form of graffiti on a wall.
Alicia Bitler reportedly described the incident as an “oops-moment” soon after it happened. Bitler then continued to teach the class. Three days later, university officials acknowledged the students’ complaints.
Incidents like these have been around the country for years. In 2020, Campus Reform reported that a law professor at Emory University was suspended for using the N-word in an “academic context to illustrate the effect language has on the severity of a civil wrong” during a lecture.
As reported by Inside Higher Ed, University of Southern California Professor Greg Patton was suspended for “saying a Chinese word that sounds like a racial slur in English” during a lecture on Chinese “filler words.”
Hellbound and Down 