NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A Barnard College professor reportedly dropped the n-word in class late last month — and originally claimed it was okay because he didn't pronounce the slur without a “hard r” sound.
Pressor Jonathan Rieder allegedly used the slur in his “Culture In America” class on Oct. 22 while discussing identity in the context of Eminem and his 2002 film “8 Mile,” Bwog, a Columbia University student newspaper, reported.
When students reportedly took issue with Rieder’s language, the professor claimed he was in the right.
“He explained that though he had previously used the full slur, including the ‘hard r’ ending, he’d stopped using the word with the ‘hard r’ two years ago, following conversations with students,” Bwog reported.
Rieder expressed regret in an email to the class a week later, but didn’t apologize for using the word itself, according to a copy of the email obtained by the student outlet.
“In retrospect, it’s fair to say that I didn’t need to quote the word,” Reider reportedly wrote. “I regret any pain or offense caused by my quoting, whether one student or the whole class felt pain or offense. You should know that in the remaining weeks of the course, no material will call for saying the word.”
Barnard College did not immediately respond to a request for comment.