| Should this professor be fired? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 20 2018, 11:48 AM (48 Views) | |
| Moon Kana | Apr 20 2018, 11:48 AM Post #1 |
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A series of controversial tweets a Cal State Fresno English professor posted Tuesday evening mocking the death of former First Lady Barbara Bush has sparked intense backlash online as well as a university inquiry. Randa Jarrar, an author and associate professor who teaches creative writing at the school, stirred outrage with tweets she sent within an hour of the announcement that Bush — the wife of President George H.W. Bush and mother of George W. Bush — had died. "Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal," Jarrar wrote on Twitter. "I'm happy the witch is dead. can't wait for the rest of her family to fall to their demise the way 1.5 million iraqis have. byyyeeeeeeee," she wrote. As Twitter users began to criticize her en masse she wrote that she was dancing "happily on the grave of someone I despise. It's SO FUN." As the whirlwind of anger kicked up, Jarrar taunted her critics, bragging about her $100,000 salary as a tenured professor. She also shared the phone number of a suicide hotline at Arizona State University, claiming it was her own number. She also declared: "I will never be fired.” |
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| Moon Kana | Apr 20 2018, 11:53 AM Post #2 |
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I agree with anyone saying that free speech does not protect you from being criticized or fired for your opinions, only legal consequences like being arrested by the government. But firing her for this seems a bit ridiculous considering how irrelevant it is to her profession, and because she was an apparently really good professor too. |
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| Blade | Apr 20 2018, 01:18 PM Post #3 |
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if the school feels like she violated terms of their employment agreement with her by doing this then yes if I was the school, I would probably give her a stern warning and tell her to knock off her immature Twitter antics and then suspend her or fire her if she does it again.
This just screams immaturity and I think it's the most embarrassing part of her tirade. If I was the school, this is what I would be most pissed off at her about. |
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| Max | Apr 20 2018, 07:49 PM Post #4 |
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ironic chair of the federal reserve
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Look man, this is an adult trampling on the grave of a very respected woman. Everyone's had their gaffes and bouts of thinly veiled racism but holy shit she's not Hitler lol I think this is definitely taking it too far, especially with the "I'll never be fired" remark. So fucking smug. Anyway, free speech might prevent you from being arrested but speech has consequences. This isn't even just about ideology either, this is just straight up disrespect to the poor, deceased woman. Like, even Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who campaigned very hard against HW in '92 were very kind to the Bushes, and have kind words for Barbara Bush, even after hostilities throughout the 90s. The Clintons and Bushes remain good friends, despite their ideological differences. Can't this woman act in the same mature manner? Edited by Max, Apr 20 2018, 07:52 PM.
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| Ruipcc | Apr 20 2018, 07:54 PM Post #5 |
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People post stupid stuff like this every day, most of it goes unnoticed though obviously. The school will be doomed if they do or don't in this case, for the wrong reasons as it will seem as if they go against her views instead of against her overall unprofessionalism if they do fire her, no matter who you are you have to be wary on what you're saying on the internet in a public domain for everyone to see, even if she doesn't lose her job she will now be much less respected for making fun of a dead person. |
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| Moon Kana | Apr 20 2018, 09:07 PM Post #6 |
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I agree with you guys that there are obvious social ramifications to this that this woman will be facing regardless. She can't avoid that, and her comment about not getting fired definitely didn't do her any favors. I can also see things from her perspective even though I don't agree with it, of course. She doesn't want to see someone she deeply despises being commended, which is something we tend to do to those who are diseased as a way of showing respect for the dead. She wasn't having any of that. |
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| Max | Apr 20 2018, 09:19 PM Post #7 |
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ironic chair of the federal reserve
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again, Barbara Bush isn't Hitler or anything though take Nixon for example: he's arguably one of the most hated and corrupt presidents of all time but when he died, there were bipartisan kind words to be shared about Nixon, because in the end he was still a respectable man and a pragmatic president despite his racist southern strat. or Watergate likewise, Barbara Bush is a wonderful woman and wife to a former president that only radicals would think committed "war crimes" by keeping Saddam out of Kuwait I think the anti-war left and right are gonna totally shit themselves over anyone with the last name Bush or Clinton, but so be it they can at least be respectful and not trample on any graves Edited by Max, Apr 20 2018, 09:22 PM.
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