Professor fired for retaliating after student claims test question is racist
A sociology lecturer was fired after a back-and-forth with a student who claimed a test question on the impact of slavery on black families was racist.
Judy Morelock, who taught a class on slave history at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, was given her walking papers in April after slamming student Kayla Parker on Facebook, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Parker claims the professor downplayed the impact of slavery in a multiple choice question about whether African-American families were affected by the slave trade.
The in-question quiz question was: “Historical research on African-American families during slavery shows that: A) Family ties weren’t important in African cultures where the slaves ancestors originated; consequently, family bonds were never strong among slaves. B) Two-parent families were extremely rare during the slave period. C) Black family bonds were destroyed by the abuses of slave owners, who regularly sold off family members to other slave owners. D) Most slave families were headed by two parents.”
Parker chose C and was told it was wrong. Morelock said D was correct.
“My professor seemed more interested in checking me than having a conversation or hearing my concerns,” Parker wrote in a Medium post titled, “Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The Tale of a Progressive Professor Who Forgot To Hide Her Racism And Got Her Ass Fired.”
Parker then presented research she said backed up her answer, — and later found out that Morelock went on Facebook to blast her.
“After the semester is over and she is no longer my student I will post her name to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn… after she graduates all bets are off,” the lecturer wrote on her Facebook page.
Parker said that she was removed from the class, given alternatives for finishing the course and offered resources to ensure her safety.
Morelock called the student’s racism claim “outrageous and unconscionable,” according to Opposing Views.
In an email to her class, the lecturer wrote: “She [Parker] filed a complaint against me with the administration and they decided she has the right to impugn my character by I had no right to defend myself,” the Sentinel reported.
A spokeswoman for the school would not say why the lecturer was removed mid-semester, and that she was prohibited by federal law from discussing the interaction between Morelock and Parker, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.