Leonard Kaplan is the latest victim of what I'm calling "Dukeification" after the Duke lacrosse fake rape scandal.
Kaplan is the University of Wisconsin law professor who has evidently caused enormous pearl-clutching throughout the liberal university by actually expecting students to think.
Yet offend he did, during a discussion about conflicts between culture and the legal system in which he used Hmong immigrants as an example.
A few days later, third-year law student KaShia Moua sent an e-mail citing four “incredibly offensive and racist” remarks she said Kaplan had made during a “10-minute rant about the Hmong.” Among them: “Hmong men have no skills other than killing” and “All second-generation Hmong end up in gangs and other criminal activity.”
Proclaiming that Kaplan “has violated our rights as students,” Moua called a meeting “to hold Kaplan and our administration accountable.” Moua did not reveal she was not in the class and received her information secondhand.
Just like the Duke University's overreaction to the charges of rape, the UW administration pre-emptively issued apologies to offended students. There was even an investigation of Kaplan and students attempted to have him fired.
The problem, as with the Duke case, is that events didn't happen quite the way the professional offended class says they did.
Kaplan denies ever saying that Hmong men have no skills except killing. Other quoted comments, he says, were taken out of context. For instance, he did say many young Hmong men are involved in criminal activity, but explained that this is typical of new immigrant groups...
Kaplan’s fellow faculty members, some of whom initially sided with the offended students, are increasingly coming to his support.
“The quotes are obviously cruelly torn from the teaching context,” wrote professor Ann Althouse, a nationally read blogger and guest columnist in The New York Times. “It is irrational to think that a law professor would assert things like this as a matter of belief.”
Also rising to Kaplan’s defense are many of the students in his class.
“Professor Kaplan is the farthest thing from a racist,” says Jason Gonzalez, the lone undergraduate in the class. “He was talking about how some recent immigrant cultures don’t assimilate to our laws immediately, and was asking if it’s ethical and right to expect that, or whether the law and society should provide more assistance.”
Students who go to law school should expect that their preconceived notions, beliefs, and attitudes are going to be questioned and dissected. Playing devil's advocate is part of a law professor's job, forcing students to "think like lawyers" in trying to justify their beliefs and theories about the law. Students have to be able to handle having their closely-treasured sensitivities challenged repeatedly.
More than a few times in law school did I have professors say outrageous things to me and attempt to embarrass me. But most professors are truly interested in presenting material in interesting and thought-provoking ways. That some students get the vapors when confronted with unpleasant truths (many new immigrants fall into crime) speaks more to their fitness for law school than to the sensitivity of the professor.
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