Written by Sangjun Hornewer ’20, Editor-in-Chief
Editor’s Note: The student sources in this article requested that The Stentor not use their names. The identities of these students are known to The Stentor.
Siobhan Moroney, associate professor and chair of the department of politics, said the n-word aloud while reading verbatim a passage from Uncle Tom’s Cabin in her course Family Structure and Political Theory.
Two students enrolled in the course, who were present when the incident occurred, contacted Moroney via email after the class meeting that day and expressed feeling “uncomfortable” hearing her read the word aloud. This prompted Moroney to initiate an in-class discussion later that week. About the use of the word in question, Moroney said, “I can only say that no one has ever said anything to me [before] in class or privately.”
Moroney said she has taught Family Structure and Political Theory at least a half a dozen times and teaches material in her other courses that contain “that kind of language.” Examples of those texts include pieces from Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, and Toni Morrison.
“I did what I always do, which is to direct students to key passages and to read passages that are thematically important,” Moroney said. “I read a passage that does contain a racial slur, as I have always done.”
According to Moroney, the passage that she read aloud pertained to how slave women experienced loss when their children were sold and how white women experienced loss when their children died. Moroney has her students read Uncle Tom’s Cabin because it explores how those losses impacted the family dynamics—a main theme of the course—of both black and white women in America.
One student enrolled in Moroney’s politics course, who was present when the word was said and wishes to remain unnamed, said, “Hearing the word out loud made me feel uncomfortable, which I naively thought it would make everyone feel. It felt unnatural to hear the word with an -er, an -a, or at all.”
After a Bias Incident Response (BIR) was filed by one of the students enrolled in the course, the Office of Intercultural Relations (OIR) became involved. Director of the OIR Claudia Ramirez Islas notes that her office serves to support all students in all situations. “We [the OIR staff] would never close the doors for anybody, whether you’re coming from a very liberal background or a more conservative background,” she said. “I think always being able to engage in dialogue is important.”
Another student present when the incident occurred in Moroney’s politics course, who also wishes to remain unnamed, said, “I honestly wasn’t surprised when she [Moroney] said it [the n-word] because I went to a public high school where my teachers gave us a warning before class and then read it out loud. This definitely will open up a larger discussion regarding all of the triggering words that might make people upset.”
Moroney evaluated the feedback from her students and is considering amending her syllabi to give students advance notice of potentially triggering language. “I think I’ll have content warnings generally,” Moroney said. “And, I think if it’s not essential, I can find a way to not say it.”
Moroney also qualifies that “pursuit of knowledge isn’t always compatible with comfort,” citing the academic freedom policy in the faculty handbook. However, some students do not feel the same way.
A group of concerned students created a document as a response to the situation, and Lake Forest College administration responded to those students in a meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 23. A number of faculty members expressed their support for the student group’s efforts as well. Updates about the culmination of that meeting and other campus events addressing this matter can be found at www.stentornews.com.
View the student document here and President Schutt’s response to that document here.
Sangjun Hornewer can be reached at hornewersm@lfc.edu.
