Johnny Wolfe, a white male history and African American Studies teacher, was recently fired from a college prep charter school in Kansas City after black students complained he had committed the unconscionable act of using the N-word, “nigger,” multiple times while teaching one of his classes. Was his transgression so intolerable it warranted a dismissal from teaching?
I don’t think so; I believe it is impossible to teach African American history without dissecting the N-word and its complexity within and outside the black community. My license to speak on the subject, for those who believe I need one, comes from the fact that I am a black political scientist born and raised in the rural South. There was a time when America’s intelligentsia agreed with me. Now, it’s considered “racial violence.”
