A professor at my school got called out for a 20 year old article

I saw a flyer in the student union calling for a professor to be fired. It quoted a piece he wrote back in 2004. The flyer said his old views made students feel unsafe now. I looked up the article, and it was a standard opinion piece from a different time. It made me think we're judging past words by today's rules. How do we handle old writings without just trying to erase them?

3 comments

3 Comments

oliver_nguyen1526d ago

Remember my buddy Jake? He found his grandpa's old letters from the 70s. They had some really rough jokes about women that made Jake cringe hard. But instead of burning them, he talked to his grandpa about it. The old man got quiet and said, "We thought that was just being funny back then. I see it hurt people now." It wasn't about erasing the letters. It was about seeing how people can change. Maybe we need more of those talks instead of just trying to get people fired.

aaron_adams26d ago

Ever hear about my friend's dad who found his old college yearbook? He had written some really mean stuff about a classmate, so he actually tracked her down to apologize. She said it meant a lot that he even remembered.

oliver_campbell926d ago

That story about Jake's grandpa hits on something important. It shows the difference between holding onto hate and learning from the past. Trying to get someone fired for old words shuts down any chance for that kind of growth. We should ask if the person has changed, not just dig up old dirt to punish them. A real talk about why those words were wrong back then does more good than a flyer calling for a job.