Georgetown Law Really Has A Knack For Casual Racism - Above the Law
Yesterday, for reasons known only by God and the IRS, Georgetown University Law Center professor Franz Werro thought it was a good idea to refer to one of his Asian International Contracts and Sales Law students as “Mr. Chinaman.”
The fuck?
People aren’t perfect — it is known. Events like this can make you wonder does a failure become a feature? Last year it was Prof. Sandra Sellers, incoming Prof. Ilya Shapiro last week, and now Professor Franz Werro? It brings to mind an old Bushism turned J Cole sample.
That said, Werro’s utterance may have been more gaffe than dogwhistle.
The first time and last time I thought I’d hear that particular phrase was in St. Louis. The history behind it is complicated and I’d like to think its use is dwindling over time. But it was jarring to hear; as an East Coaster, I let out one of the same “what the hell is wrong with you?” uncomfortable chuckles you hear on the video. Don’t get me wrong — he should not have said what he said, but he may not have had enough context to know that he messed up.
His CV records his teaching in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, basically all the Eurotrip spots. Was what he said ignorant? Yes. But from what I can tell, it was in the “should have known better” way, not the “hiding pro-discrimination rhetoric behind reverse racism and 1st Amendment red herrings way” that Amy Wax and Ilya Shapiro have done it.
I am not a member of the Asian-American community. They have my support with how they choose to handle this situation and I wish for nothing but a safe learning environment for them.
I am Black though. And I’m worried how this could be spun. My hope is that Prof. Werro issues an apology. An actual one too, not one of those “sorry you got offended” types, but an “I was unaware of the racial history of the phrase I used, thank you for educating me and I assure you that it will not happen again” flavored sorry. Because there is a long history of (usually white) right-leaning pundits and public academics who use events like this to shape public discussion around normalizing racism. This could easily get spun by a bunch of Volokh types who defend the use of the n-word in their classes — I can already see them pointing at Prof. Werro’s potentially inadvertent use of a slur to justify their deliberate use of them.
Get on that apology though Prof. I know it only happened yesterday but 24 hours online is about three weeks real world time.
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
source: https://abovethelaw.com/2022/02/georgetown-law-really-has-a-knack-for-casual-racism/
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