The school's rebuke came after a student backlash against Political Science Professor Jerry Hough, 80, whose May 9 letter sought to address racism and the Baltimore riots. Hough said African-Americans don't try to integrate into society, while Asians “worked doubly hard” to overcome racism instead of blaming it.
Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration,” he wrote on May 10. “Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration.”
Duke students and faculty blasted Hough last week, and the school told The News & Observer of Raleigh that he was placed on leave and that 2016 will be his last year at the school.
“The comments were noxious, offensive, and have no place in civil discourse,” said Duke spokesman Michael Schoenfeld. “Duke University has a deeply held commitment to inclusiveness grounded in respect for all, and we encourage our community to speak out when they feel that those ideals are challenged or undermined, as they were in this case.”
But Hough, in an e-mail to an ABC affiliate, said political correctness is getting in the way of thoughtful and frank debate.
“I am strongly against the obsession with ‘sensitivity,'" Hough wrote. "The more we have emphasized sensitivity in recent years, the worse race relations have become. I think that is not an accident. I know that the 60 years since the Montgomery bus boycott is a long time, and things must be changed. The Japanese and other Asians did not obsess with the concentration camps and the fact they were linked with blacks as ‘colored.’"Hough even played the "Coach K" card, referencing beloved. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/19/duke-professor-responds-to-criticism-about-online-comments-made-regarding/
The professor is right.
The Japanese and most Asians were worse than Blacks around WWII and probably through the Korean and Vietnam War.
However, the Asians, both who lived here and who immigrated here have worked hard, both in their education and in their jobs. They have advanced so far that now, Asians are now discriminated against, especially in supposedly tolerant California, when it comes to college admissions.
Blacks, on the other hand, have turned the inner cities into war zones, their education stinks, they live off the government and expect people to cater to them.
Of course, those are generalizations. Not all Asians are perfect- some are in gangs and there are some on welfare.
And not all Blacks in the inner city are bad- some are hard working and do their best despite their horrible education in those liberal cities and some are not on government assistance or if they are on government assistance, some do get off.
But the professor is right, Asians have outpaced Blacks in general significantly in the past 70 years or so in their accomplishments and education.
