Missouri professor makes mask joke, gets suspended

  • Thread starter Thread starter gam197
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Sarcelle said:
My contention is there is no such thing as Asian culture.
Click to expand...
I have known many people from areas that are considered Asian. There is great diversity as there are in other communities and no there is no one Asian culture.
 
Last edited:
Back to the topic.

Has the professor been fired, suspended or merely reprimanded?
 
Sarcelle said:
Has the professor been fired, suspended or merely reprimanded?
Click to expand...
From a linked article…
A business school professor was relieved of his teaching duties after he made a joke about putting on a mask to a Chinese student—a joke that the student did not find offensive.

University of Missouri (Mizzou) professor Joel Poor was placed on a leave of absence following a complaint to the school’s Office of Civil Rights and Title IX by another student, Lourdes Torrey, who called Poor’s comments xenophobic and racist.
Click to expand...
 
gam197 said:
Distributed harassment.have not heard this term before.
Click to expand...
I’m being descriptive. I dont know that the phrase is part of the lexicon of those that study harassment. In scenarios like this, no one person alone is by themselves doing something that might be considered harassment. But the aggregate effect of thousands of people making the same types of offensive comments is that of harassment.
 
He’s dismissed pending further investigation.

I like the point this article makes. https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/melinda-henneberger/article245286930.html
In France, I was asked more than a few times whether everyone back home was fat, and was told more often than I found comfortable that our culture was rapacious, our history imperialistic and our country full of fascists. In Mexico, I repeatedly heard that I sure was tall.
Click to expand...
Any American who’s lived or traveled extensively abroad is used to hearing swipes about where they live. (Weirdly, a lot of people in South American made references to me about the Ku Klux Klan, as though Nathan Bedford Forrest and his henchmen were still running amok in the countryside).

The other point that the article makes is important, however. This professor may not have deserved punishment for this one flippant comment. But if the allegations are true of all of his sexual comments, he probably should have been outed even sooner.

I’m cutting out the worst parts to keep CAF PG-rated, but there are more details in the article.
He’d also be weirdly flirty with students during interactive lectures, typically targeting girls wearing sorority letters.”
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
The Missouri professors being disciplined or possibly fired over a mild joke about China, does have me wondering about the influence that China has over American businesses and Universities.

I know at neighboring University of Illinois the University receives a good amount of income from Chinese students. With China’s no tolerance policies, the University would be concerned about losing that source of money.
 
Interesting thought. Tangentially, I’ve been reading up on the Confucius Institutes being set up on American university campuses. Supposedly, they are run by the Chinese and do a lot to promote the Chinese government and culture. Not surprisingly, any criticisms - e.g. of forced abortions or Uygher Muslim detention camps - are unwelcome. University of Missouri recently closed its Confucius Institute, but not for any of the aforementioned reasons. University of Missouri to sever ties to Confucius Institute - News - Columbia Daily Tribune - Columbia, MO
 
Last edited:
Sweden has also banned the Confucius institutes at its Universities.

The Confucius institute serves to promote not China but the CCP.
 
“…following a complaint to the school’'s Office of Civil Rights and Title IX by another student, Lourdes Torrey, who called Poor’s comments xenophobic and racist.”

Just telling a joke – and a mild one at that – is violating someone’s civil rights? If people would just learn to mind their own business, we would all get along much better in this world. What did the professor’s joke have to do with Lourdes Torrey? It wasn’t addressed to Lourdes Torrey. Has this “other student” so much idle time that he or she can afford to go around tattling? How about studying and learning something, instead of poking one’s nose in where it doesn’t belong?
 
JanR said:
Just telling a joke – and a mild one at that – is violating someone’s civil rights?
Click to expand...
No, not necessarily. I dont know the school’s procedures, but at other places where I’ve worked if such a complaint is made against a person there is usually an investigation, which has at times been in the form of asking others that interact with the person in question about their experiences to see if there is a body of evidence to support a claim that the person treats people differently based on some attribute.

A suspension during an investigation can be to the benefit of the employer. If the investigation turns up evidence but no suspension had occurred then there is room to argue that the entity had been informed of a hostile situation and allowed it to persist. This could open the entity up to lawsuits. It can be to the benefit of the alleged victim as it prevents other situations.

If the investigation turns up nothing, then the person would continue their work, though probably with a warning to not make such comments in the future.
Roselle said:
The Missouri professors being disciplined or possibly fired over a mild joke about China, does have me wondering about the influence that China has over American businesses and Universities.
Click to expand...
I dont think this is an indication of influence over the university. But since you mentioned american business…

 
I didn’t watch all of the video, but interesting about the China references in Hollywood movies. I can remember when the Dalian city billionaire purchased a major movie theater chain in the US. I had a guess then that would learn to further influence on what Hollywood can and can not say about China.

Overall, it is troubling how communist China does punish companies and people that don’t do as they want. A few examples of that ~

“How China gets American companies to parrot its propaganda”

Corporations self-censor to protect themselves from the Communist Party’s ire.​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...2f7b8c-eb73-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html

&

AG Barr slams U.S. tech companies for becoming ‘pawns of Chinese influence’​

  • U.S. Attorney General William Barr blasted American tech giants Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple and Cisco as well as Hollywood for being “all too willing to collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party.”
  • Barr called some U.S. technology companies “pawns of Chinese influence.”
  • Apple and Cisco disputed some of the claims made by Barr in responses provided to CNBC.
 
Dr_Meinheimer said:
40.png
Tis_Bearself:
If I say I’m from Cleveland and the professor makes a joke about Cleveland being “The Mistake by the Lake” or the river catching fire, maybe I’ll say it doesn’t bother me (Because I’ve heard such jokes 1,423,794 times, one learns to ignore it) but it’s still rude. It’s not what I expect to hear from a professor.
Click to expand...
Or referring to the Browns as the Factory of Sadness.

Sorry, not helping.
Click to expand...
I’m sorry but that got a chuckle.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The joke he made was rude. The uni was right to discipline him
Click to expand...
Agreed, but it looks like he was actually fired. That’s usually my beef with this stuff. It’s not that the person didn’t step in it; it’s that the punishment is disproportionate to the offense.

Documenting it, requesting that he apologize to the student, and warning him to watch it in the future seems just. Firing him seems extreme.
 
Roselle said:
communist China does punish companies and people that don’t do as they want.
Click to expand...
At the end of the day, It comes down to them trying to make money and a decision on if they want to be accommodating to get it. China is one of the largest markets and of interest to those looking for revenue growth. On the conflicts between philosophical positions and profitability, I’m expecting many companies to choose the pathway that is more profitable. Don’t look to corporations as a moral guide.
 
RolandThompsonGunner said:
Agreed, but it looks like he was actually fired.
Click to expand...
Was he? The stories I’ve encountered thus far say otherwise.
The university confirmed that the marketing professor, Joel Poor, remained employed and “has been assigned to other duties.” Missouri referred the incident to its Office for Civil Rights and Title IX, which has opened an investigation.
Click to expand...
src
 
RolandThompsonGunner said:
I was just going off the story linked to in the OP. Or maybe I just read too quickly. 😬
Click to expand...
This gets back to my question on why this is being referred to as “cancelled.” Taking the time to look into what happened and investigate before making any type of employment decision is much contrary to how I’ve seen “cancelled” used in news stories. Usually “cancelled” refers to the knee-jerk termination of someone and the following inability to find employment after a lot of people call for the punishment of an individual for an alleged infraction.

I think the use of the word “cancelled” in the OP is likely to cause misunderstandings and misrepresents the reaction.
 
I agree with your general point that people often need to lighten up, but the customs and culture of an infantry platoon would not work for society as a whole. 😆
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top