St. John’s University Professor Fired For Using Racial Term from Mark Twain Reading
St. John’s University joins a list of woke universities, schools, and programs willing to reshape its curriculum to coddle students who feel challenged on a mental or emotional level.
During a reading of Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, Professor Hannah Berliner Fischthal became another casualty in the way of a race-based movement that cost her a profession and livelihood – one built on years of garnering her students’ trust through thoughtful and open conversation.
During a read-through that prompted Berliner Fischthal to use the N-word directly from the text, one student exited the online session and sent an email detailing the emotional distress this cause.
The student’s email stated that the professor’s use of the term was “unnecessary and very painful to hear.” The message became a public ordeal and prompted the university to investigate the action, leading to the professor’s dismissal from St. John’s University.
The story revolves around two boys growing up in the South, whose discovery of titles and racial status among society leads them down two different paths contrary to what they initially perceived as advantageous or detrimental. The story is a cautionary tale of the vapid use of title and race in American society and warns of its misguided appeal for personal gain – which sounds like useful literature for modern America.
Shortly after the student expressed their qualm with the read-through, Berliner Fischthal provided extensive context to her use of the word and started a chat titled “Insensitive Language” that allowed students to voice their concerns from the reading.
A number of students included in the online read-through voiced their support for Berliner Fischthal, stating that the term was used in an appropriate context rather than in a derogatory manner. The professor initially was suspended in March, then notified of her removal from the university in late April.
“His (Twain’s) use of the ‘N-word’ is used only in dialogues as it could have actually been spoken in the south before the civil war, when the story takes place,” Berliner Fischthal responded when discussing the reading with her students. “The point of the novel was that there is no inherent difference between Blacks and Whites. Clothes and education are what distinguishes people. Both the boys in the story look exactly the same, even though one is by law a slave, and the other one is a privileged White boy.”
The dismissal is not a new story for St. John’s, who fired adjunct history professor and former police officer Richard Taylor when students complained about his teachings during a course on the Columbian Exchange.
The ongoing trend of "complain then dismiss" continues to worry parents across the nation, whose tuition dollars and donations toward their children’s education continues to be hindered by race-based quotas.