Quote:
Originally Posted by LessinSF
I am curious what the attorneys here think. The UCLA law school dean, Jennifer Mnookin, is a high school classmate of mine. Same year. We were even on the school's Academic Decathalon team together. I like Jennifer, but I side with Professor Volokh on this: https://reason.com/2020/04/14/ucla-l...ussing-a-case/ |
Since you asked.
There are two questions here. One is can he be fired, demoted or otherwise disciplined for this. It doesn't look like this has happened in any way shape or form. It doesn't even look like the dean has told him to stop using the word. Indeed, the Dean Mnookin even said he had the "right" to use the word in the way he used it.
The question presented, the only question that seems at issue here, is the "AITA" question. Yes, he is the asshole. It's easy enough to avoid using the word, and I think doing so highlights the charged nature of the word (much more charged than the "Fuck" in "Fuck the Draft" - these are very different words). This has nothing the fuck to do with anyone swearing, this has to do with racial bigotry and abuse, and anyone who doesn't get that is a fucking moron. Comparing the two, as E.V. does in his little article, is totally irrelevant, they have absolutely zero to do with each other. So, he's not just the asshole in this case, he's the moronic asshole who not seems to conflate the idea of an "AITA" question with some kind of question of right but also seems to conflate the idea of a garden variety slur with a statement of racial bigotry and prejudice. I know you worship at the alter of E.V., but this is not his finest hour in any sense of the phrase.
I admire Jennifer's restraint in not explicitly saying, "I'm sorry he's such an asshole"; I suspect in private she may well have said, "Eugene, can you just try not to be such a dick."
