Dr. Ben Carson is learning the perils of rising in the polls in a presidential election. This week, the National Enquirer produced an article detailing what it says is a pattern of malpractice by Carson, including leaving a sponge in the head of a patient. Some of the harshest commentary however have come from liberal African Americans. Much like some of the criticism faced by Clarence Thomas, Carson has been attacked as being a type of traitor to the black community despite the fact that he is a hugely successful doctor and mentor for many. University of Pennsylvania Professor Anthea Butler however took that criticism to a new low in calling Carson a “coon.” While such a racial slur would normally be followed by demands for terminations from a white professor, the response to the slur has been at best muted.
The Butler incident raises again the question of a double standard in controversies at the University of California and Boston University, where there have been criticism of a double standard, even in the face of criminal conduct. Just yesterday we discussed a case at the University of London involving Bahar Mustafa.
Butler said that Ben Carson should win the “coon of the year” after the 2016 hopeful supported allowing Confederate flags at NASCAR events. Carson had stated a principled position in favor of free speech despite his own obvious dislike for the imagery. Many free rights advocates, including myself, have argued for the right to display such symbols. Carson said “Swastikas are a symbol of hate for some people too … and yet they still exist in our museums and places like that . . . If it’s a majority of people in that area who want it to fly, I certainly wouldn’t take it down.”
There are strong arguments for protecting this right, but Professor Butler by writing “If only there was a ‘coon of the year’ award …”
The response from the head of her department indicates that this is not going to be viewed as an issue for her colleagues or the school. Professor Justin McDaniel told the Washington Examiner that “She is a valued colleague and faculty member, but I have no comment on the tweet, because I have not seen it nor know the context of the comment.” Fair enough. However, there is a legitimate question of how the school would have responded to a white professor calling a leading African-American a “coon” or other slur. Would that public comment be treated as a private affair? Indeed, racially insensitive comments on social commentary by a Duke University professor led to calls for his termination.
McDaniel is not the only one defending Butler. Over at Mediaite, they are insisting that Butler never actually referred to Carson as a “coon.” While I have added “reportedly” to the title, the defense seems to go nowhere beyond suggesting that people are racists if they interpret a tweet on Carson as receiving an award of “Coon of the Year” as referring to Carson as “Coon of the Year.”
“Now, if you want to interpret Professor Butler’s tweet that way, you’re welcome to do so, but to state that interpretation as fact is just plain wrong. In fact, maybe you’re the racist for reading that tweet and assuming that she meant Ben Carson is a “coon.” There’s another much more relevant interpretation to be made.”
However, Tommy Christopher never gets around to actually explaining the misinterpretations by presumptive racists. It is simply noted that the tweet was in response to Ben Carson’s remarks on NASCAR and the Confederate flag — as has been widely reported. Christopher then goes into an aside on an actual Coon of the Year competition in Maine. Others have suggested that Butler was referring to how “whites” would refer to him. I fail to see how that is a defense. She would still be saying that Carson qualifies as a “coon”, which was obviously slur created for whites for blacks. It is saying that he meets that definition. You end up in the same place. It is like saying that a black leader is an Uncle Tom or “house n****r” — the point is that he qualifies as the type of subservient slave-like character referenced by racist whites. For those who have long been critical of the increasing list of “microaggressions” being sanctioned on campuses, this would seem a macroaggression under the prevailing logic.
This is not the first controversy for Butler who is also a regular on MSNBC as a commentator. In 2013, she tweeted in commentary on the Zimmerman case that
God ain’t good all of the time. In fact, sometimes, God is not for us. As a black woman in a nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a white man, and am not capable of taking care of my reproductive rights, or my voting rights, I know that this American god ain’t my god. As a matter of fact, I think he’s a white racist god with a problem. More importantly, he is carrying a gun and stalking young black men.
Once again, I have long maintained that academics, including Professor Butler, deserve free speech and academic protections for expressing controversial thoughts. The problem is not that there is a clearly undefined and unevenly applied standard for academics with regard to racially sensitive or controversial comments.
As for Carson, I find the backlash against successful African-Americans like him or Clarence Thomas to be astonishing. One can easily disagree with Thomas’ opinions, but he has one of the most genuine and moving life stories of anyone in Washington. If he were liberal, his rise from abject poverty to the highest court would be celebrated as the triumph of true American values. The same can be said about Carson who has achieved a remarkable amount in his lifetime. African Americans should be celebrated regardless of their political views by the black community and society at large. The harsh and intolerant response to conservative blacks on campuses in not just unfair it is distinctly anti-intellectual. Yet, this intolerance is becoming a badge of pride for some who believe that they have license to insult and degrade those who dare hold views different from their own. Carson’s comment about the confederate flag shows considerable principle in overcoming the powerfully negative imagery for his community. It is Professor Butler who reduced this substantive debate to the level of racial slurs and personal insults.
Martin Luther King said “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Carson stood for free speech rights. It is not clear what Professor Butler stands for in casting racial slurs in response.
john smith, Whenever the Packer fullback, John Kuhn, gets the ball, Packer fans yell “Kuuuhn.” Based on the courageous statements by Richard Sherman about BLM, this fat, ugly professor would yell the same when he intercepts a pass.
I see The Root is now taking ugly shots @ Ben Carson’s wife. The Dem slaves don’t like it when a slave learns to read, becomes an honored surgeon, and leaves the reservation.
I agree she can call Ben whatever epithets she wants and don’t lay on the thick opprobrium. Carson himself has denounced political correctness and I agree with him. However lets not have a double standard– white people are going to use epithets too sometimes and let’s not get overly exercised about it.
She has the constitutional First Amendment Dog Given Right to use the N word if she wishes. She can call Clarence Thomas “Uncle Clarence” and Justice Roberts “Dumb White Boy”. This is America.
FYI to those who don’t like the Professor’s hair, black people have curly hair.
Lisa, One must ALWAYS consider the source. That’s something I learned professionally and personally.
Jerry, FYI, black people also get gray/ white hair as they age.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/ben-carson-is-not-actually-coon-of-the-year/
Ivy League Professor Didn’t Actually Call Ben Carson ‘Coon of the Year’
“The conservative media is in a lather because they think University of Pennsylvania Professor Anthea Butler called Dr. Ben Carson “Coon of the Year,” which obviously makes her racist. Last week, Butler responded to this (now-deleted) Goldie Taylor tweet.
The tweet linked to this article, about Ben Carson’s remarks on NASCAR fans flying the Confederate flag.
There are a few problems with this story, chief among them being that Professor Butler didn’t actually call Ben Carson anything, nor did she even recommend him for the titular award. Butler herself pointed this out before her Twitter account was locked, perhaps because conservatives decided to defend Ben Carson from her alleged racism by calling her everything from “Buckwheat” to “Jigaboo” to, yes, “coon” (here’s a sampling of those tweets).
Now, if you want to interpret Professor Butler’s tweet that way, you’re welcome to do so, but to state that interpretation as fact is just plain wrong. In fact, maybe you’re the racist for reading that tweet and assuming that she meant Ben Carson is a “coon.” There’s another much more relevant interpretation to be made.
None of that should really matter, though, to the conservatives who are hyperventilating about this, especially those who support Ben Carson. Why, just the other day, he was rejecting political correctness even as he smeared the victims of the Oregon mass shooting as complicit in their own slaughter. This effort by the conservative media is nothing if not an attempt to police black language, a practice they supposedly reject with every fiber of their being.”
***************
Thanks for the heads up on this one Randyjet. Now I’ll let the commenter’s here continue to fling racial epithets at her and rewrite MLK’s life story. It makes this blog’s comments section look really intelligent.
Gotta like that fake blonde wig Anthea wears. God ain’t good all of the time. Anthea needs to hook up with law professor Anita Hill.
If Joe Biden gets into the presidential race, allies and supporters of Hillary Clinton say there are just two words that will make a difference as he seeks support among women and African-Americans: Anita Hill.
Nearly 24 years have passed since the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in which Hill, a respected law professor,
was grilled under oath about alleged inappropriate sexual behavior by Thomas, her former boss. The graphic testimony gripped Washington and the country
and spurred intense public conversations about sex, harassment and the nominee’s charge of being subjected to a “high-tech lynching for uppity blacks.”
But that hasn’t erased the memories of how Biden presided over those hearings as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, blamed for doing little
to stop the attacks on Hill and opting not to call three other witnesses who would have echoed Hill’s charges of sexual harassment.
I hate the name-calling, even by a black professor; but Carson appears to me to be an idiot savant – and I’d suggest you stick to neurosurgery, Doc, since you appear not to know a thing about anything else.
Randy Jet,
Anthea racist Butler repeated the stereotype they label a nonconformist black man and that’s the same as calling him a coon.
I worked with another white federal officer whom was from Louisiana. He made a comment referencing a coon’s azz, no reference to race or a person but in reference to so much time has passed since he hunted. Another black officer complained that it was a racist statement and he was written up.
Does that mean the black community owns the word “Coon” now? Does that mean they can claim racism for words they annoint as racist? The hypocrisy smells worse than a coons azz!
Karen S – Dr. Martin Luther King was Republican and didn’t trust Democrats and looked at them as users, using the black man as a tool to remain in power. He was right, as he was on most issues then. His philosophies still apply today as do Booker T. Washington. I don’t think Dr. King or Booker T would approve of the skin merchants of Washington, Obama, Sharpton and Farakahn.
Lisa, I hesitated to reply since I doubt it will penetrate, but in the interest of informing others. I have to reply to your outright lies. I suspect, but do not know for a fact how MLK voted, but I DO know how his wife did. I was alive and a participant in the civil rights movement and I recall her saying that she was very grateful for JFK calling her husband who was in jail in support of him. Nixon did not, and it DID change MLKs fathers vote. Most people forget that black Americans were traditionally GOP ever since the end of Reconstruction when they forgot that the GOP threw them to the white wolves of the Dixiecrats. This changed when FDR became President and the mass migration of blacks from the South when they joined the industrial workforce and joined unions. Then economic interests overcame the post Civil War tradition and they saw that the GOP had lined up against ALL working people. Politics is using people by the way to get to your interests. THAT is nothing new. In fact the GOP used to be the progressive party which is why Teddy Roosevelt won election in his own right and came out in support of striking workers. I have YET to see ANY GOPer support any strike at any time in the USA. I can list the historical GOP persons who were radical progressives, but they are all gone now.
The Democratic party ceased to be the Dixiecrat affiliated party when the 1965 Civil Rights bill was passed. In fact, as LBJ observed, it was the end of that party in the South as we have seen when all the people who used to call me a nigger lover changed parties and joined the GOP. They have not changed their views, only their party. Most rational people have seen this as a fact. MLK did not disown or hate Malcolm X after he broke from the Nation of Islam. He had fraternal relations and they were looking at how to work together. As for Farakahn, he is still same old hustler he was back in those days, and was complicit in murdering Malcolm X as well. So to say MLK was a Republican may have been true at one point, but when he was active in the Civil Rights movement and leading it, he most certainly supported Democrats. So I can say that in the 1960 election, he most certainly would not have voted for Nixon. As a young person, I supported SNCC and John Lewis who was the head of that organization and I was outraged when at the March on Washington he was forced to .tone down his speech attacking the JFK administration for not pushing hard enough for the Civil Rights bill. I suggest you read Caro’s bio of LBJ for an education about that time and you will get an accurate picture of how the JFK folks screwed up their relations with Congress and froze out LBJ. THAT was the problem, not that JFK was opposed to it. It took JFKs murder and LBJs skill to get that bill passed.
By the way, I am married to a coonass which is Louisianan for a Cajun person, as any literate person should know. She does not speak French, though her mother did.
randyjet – as an educated person I know you cannot correctly call your wife a coonass unless she speaks fluent French.
Was She was referring to what his supporters who are racists call him? maybe a few readers here will offer some suggestions.
Randyjet,
Prof JT knows that most of his blog audience will not do their homework, before commenting on his articles and critiques.
JT,
I am confused. You adamantly supported former U of I Prof. Salatia (and his views are more ‘interesting’ to say the least) and opposed his termination by U of I. However, you are wondering and/or questioning why U of Penn Professor Butler has not been given a pink slip (or no talk of a pink slip given to her)?
Initially I agreed with Prof Turley, UNTIL I saw the context. She stated that his Uncle Tom act is worthy of being named by WHITES who support him, The Coon of the Year award since that is what they call him in private. She was referring to what his supporters who are racists call him, NOT what she would call him. Sorry Prof, that was a swing and a MISS. Hope your Cubbies do better than that.
randyjet – your take is even worse. She is claiming (per you) that whites cannot support a black man. Now what does that say about the whites who supported Obama? Is he also a ‘coon’?
btw, this woman should lose her position.
ninian – after the UK gets a Constitution, get back to us. BTW, a new constitution is not going to stop fights on the playground.
And what do her customers, i.e. students think? Here you go,,,,
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1551168
Responsibility is the Price of Freedom.
This story illustrates another Fine Mess.
Professor Turley and others are wrong to take the concept Freedom out of context, yet again.
I have blogged repeatedly that the individual freedom of one citizen negatively imparts on the freedom of another.
Lawyers have the luxury of demented argument on this subject, which confounds the problem rather than addresses it.
This is yet another example of abuse of the definition of freedom within a culture of Society which IS a reality.
These individual freedom arguments are endless because your system is broken. And what’s more, everyone knows it’s broken. Nothing is done about it because everyone likes to play the intellectual game.
Only it isn’t intellectual.
It’s facile.
America needs to move on from this impasse and leave its political puberty, to enter a real world of political maturity.
These endless issues, like the fights in the school playground, need to be ended.
And to do this you need a new Constitution to meet the challenges of a modern world no longer based on the slavery of others.