USC Alumni Compare School to Chairman Mao for Suspending Prof. Who Said ‘Um’ in Chinese

A group of alumni sent an open letter to the USC this week criticizing its decision to suspend Professor Greg Patton. Patton was suspended at the beginning of September when he used the Chinese word that for “um,” which sounds to some like a racial slur. The alumni compared the university’s decision to the leadership of China’s Chairman Mao, who frequently accused innocent people of crimes.

According to a report by the College Fix, a group of alumni is pushing back against USC’s decision to suspend Professor Greg Patton, who remains on leave over his use of a Chinese word during a classroom lecture on international cultures.

Breitbart News reported on September 2 that Patton was suspended after using the Chinese word “nèi ge,” a filler word that equates to “um” in English. Shortly after the lectures, students levied complaints against Patton and the university removed him from the course and launched an investigation.

“If you have a lot of ‘ums and errs,’ this is culturally specific so based on your native language. Like in China, the common word is ‘that, that, that.’ So in China it might be ‘nèi ge, nèi ge, nèi ge,’” Patton said in the recorded lecture.

In the letter, the alumni question the university’s decision to remove Patton from the classroom over his use of the Chinese word. Most of the alumni that signed the letter are of Chinese descent and many currently live in China. The signers argue that Patton’s use of the Chinese word was “entirely appropriate.”

We represent more than a dozen nationalities and ethnicities and support the global inclusiveness Professor Patton brings to the classroom. Most of us are Chinese, some ethnically, some by nationality, and many others have spent extensive time in China. Most of us live in China. We unanimously recognize Prof Patton’s use of ‘nei ge’ as an accurate rendition of common Chinese use, and an entirely appropriate and quite effective illustration of the use of pauses. Prof Patton used this example and hundreds of others in our classes over the years, providing richness, relevance and real world impact.

The letter goes as far as to compare USC’s handling of the situation to the leadership of Chairman Mao, who ushered China into a dark period of Communist authoritarian leadership.

A few of us, but many of our parents, lived through mainland China’s Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976). This current incident, and Marshall’s response so far, seem disturbingly similar to prevalent behavior in China at that time – spurious accusations against innocent people, which escalated into institutional insanity.

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