The Color Of Disrespect

Philosophy professor Laurence Thomas has caused a ruckus at Syracuse University.

If [he] catches a student sending text messages or reading a newspaper in class, he’ll end the class on the spot and walk out. It doesn’t matter if there is but one texter in a large lecture of hundreds of students. If you text, he will leave

That practice is controversial enough, but, as most things on campus do these days, it also has a racial and ethnic dimension.

Last week, when a student in a large lecture — in the front row no less — sent a text message, Thomas followed through on his threat (as he had done just a few days earlier). And he then sent the university’s chancellor, his dean, and all of the students an e-mail message explaining his actions and his frustration at the “brazen” disrespect he had received in class. In the e-mail, he noted that the student who sent the text message is Cuban, and that last year, two Latino students had started to play tic-tac-toe during his class.

So, Prof. Thomas has it in for minorities, right? Maybe not. Here’s some more local color from Syracuse:

While Thomas noted that white students are also rude, he expressed frustration that — especially as a minority scholar himself — he would be treated in this way. “One might have thought that for all the talk about racism and the good of social equality, non-white students would be particularly committed to respecting a black professor,” Thomas wrote.

Prof. Thomas may not dislike minorities, but he’s no fan of the “diversity” fetish that has taken over, as made clear in one of his emails:

Now, I do not know how this will unfold. But I will either not teach the course PHI 191 in the future or I will simply resign from Syracuse University. But what I will not do is tolerate such brazen disrespect for me. I am an old fashion [sic]individual in that I believe in principles of right and wrong that transcend every race/ethnicity and sexual identity. Ethnic diversity has become the gospel of Syracuse University. I maintain that ethnic diversity shorn of respect is utterly vapid. The respect that I demand of you stems not from arrogance or any sense of self-importance but from my unfailing commitment to your excellence. And when talk about all else blinds us to this reality, then the classroom becomes empty and meaningless.

Finally, or almost finally, one more turn of the color wheel: it seems that the Cuban student referred to above was offended that she was called “white.”

Many have wondered how he happened to know the student’s ethnicity and why he remarked on it. Thomas said that before class starts, he chats informally with students and that on the fateful day last week, he was talking with a group of students about politics. He made a reference to the fact that he didn’t want the white students to feel that they couldn’t be honest with their views even though he is black. The student who later texted during class was with the group of students Thomas addressed, assuming them to be white, and she shot back “I’m Cuban.”

Here’s what I think is yet another dimension of this controversy: are some of Prof. Thomas’s own assumptions part of the problem here? Specifically, is it reasonable or fair for him to assume that “non-white students would be particularly committed to respecting a black professor,” or even that they should be? Since Prof. Thomas does believe that assumption both reasonable and fair, does he expect more respect from those students? Does this double-standard of demanded respect amount to discrimination against both his minority students, from whom he expects more, and his non-minority students, from whom he expects less?

Collegiate racial and ethnic waters are swift and treacherous; the currents are constantly shifting; and the lifeguards are few and far between. Enter those waters at your peril.