Allen Zaruba, Towson University Professor, Fired for Using the N-Word During a Lecture

Allen Zaruba, Towson University professor, fired for using the word nigger during lecture.

Allen Zaruba, an adjunct faculty member at Towson University in Maryland, was recently fired after using a racial slur in a class. According to The Towerlight, he was teaching his Visual Concepts class on Monday, Feb. 22, and during a discussion of "Themes of Contemporary Art," written by Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, while reviewing a chapter in the book about identity and the body, he referred to himself as a "nigger on the corporate plantation." Say what?

Of course, in the aftermath of this deplorable behavior, he tried to clean it up by saying he was raised overseas and in other cultures, serves in the prison ministry, teaches Sunday school and that his stepfather is a black man, who loved him dearly. You know, the usual BS.

Maybe Mr. Zaruba meant no harm, but that was certainly a poor choice of words to use. He claimed he used the phrase to illustrate a point and was not trying to offend anyone.

He was later dismissed from the school, where he taught for 12 years and reportedly spent the 2003-2004 academic year on a Fulbright fellowship in South Korea.

According to The Towerlight, the standard contract offered to part-time faculty members says they serve “at the pleasure of the University's president” and allows the University to dismiss adjunct instructors for “any legal reason.” He was reportedly told no appeal process existed to contest his dismissal. That doesn't sound fair. He should be able to have his side of the matter heard.