the rix mix

TOWSON, Md., March 3 (UPI) -- Towson University in Maryland has dismissed a popular adjunct art instructor for using a racial slur in class.

Allen Zaruba, who said Tuesday he made a "terrible terrible mistake," told The Baltimore Sun he accepts his firing and does not plan to contest it. Zaruba said the chairman of the art department, Stuart Stein, called him Thursday, three days after he used the slur, to tell him he was out of a job.

Zaruba, an artist, has taught at Towson for 12 years as a part-time instructor. This semester, he was teaching three classes.

Marina Cooper, a Towson spokeswoman, said at least one student and one parent complained about Zaruba's language.

Adam Jackson, president of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, said he had heard Zaruba used the slur while talking about a "corporate plantation."

"I think that the university firing him on the basis of using a racially charged word is an excuse to escape criticism from across the university," Jackson said. "At worst, it could be a racially insensitive analogy, but to call the university a 'corporate plantation' would be a deep statement that directly challenges the politics of this university."

Being an adjunct at a massive education factory like Towson isn't like being "a nigger on the corporate plantation?" Maybe that's too strong a comparison with an insensitive word (only when used in any context by a white person; It's de rigueur for black stand up on Comedy Central). But we can be certain Zaruba isn't a house negro, overseer, or massa. The university could have fired him at any time for incompetence or indifference or just because, which it cannot do to incompetent or indifferent - or quietly racist - tenured professors. I feel an injustice here. So does the president of a progressive campus organization.

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