Law Schools

Law Professor Suspended For Using The N-Word In Class, Now Says He Was Discriminated Against For Being White

The prof is fighting over the right to use the n-word without consequence.

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Paul Zwier

Some people just don’t get it. Whatever your liberal bona fides, when you start suing over so-called reverse discrimination, well, I certainly think your perspective on race relations is suspect.

Anyway, I bet faithful Above the Law readers remember law professor Paul Zwier. Zwier’s the Emory Law prof who used the n-word in class…. no, not that one, the other one.  Anyway, way back in 2018, in the very first week of classes, Zwier was teaching his torts class about offensive battery. Though the case under discussion does not use the actual n-word, Zwier, however, used that word when he called on a student — a Black woman to boot — to ask about the fact pattern in the case. In explaining the situation, Zwier initially said that while he doesn’t specifically recall using the racial slur, he may have gotten the facts of the case confused with the facts of a different case, next on the syllabus where the slur was used. He later justified the use of the word (from the report of the Emory Office of Equity and Inclusion): “in using the n-word, [Zwier] intended to suggest that the court record was sanitized and that the plaintiff had actually been called the inflammatory epithet.”

Later that semester, the school began an investigation into allegations Zwier used the n-word. Again. This second incident was not in class, but in office hours when he told a student he didn’t mean to disparage anyone, and said he’d been called an n-word lover in the past. Except, you know, he didn’t say “n-word” he actually used the term. Zwier was put on administrative leave and barred from returning to campus.

A Faculty Hearing Committee was convened to determine what should happen to Zwier. The professor launched a full-out defense of his behavior, calling in the American Association of University Professors and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education making the case for his use of the n-word as academic freedom. Ultimately, Zwier kept his job, was allowed to return to campus and was barred from teaching mandatory 1L classes until the fall of 2021.

But that punishment, which I described at the time as “a wrist, being lightly tapped,” is now being characterized by Zwier as discriminatory. Last week, Zwier filed a lawsuit against Emory, as well as former dean James Hughes, alleging discrimination, retaliation, and libel. He argues that Black colleagues are able to use the n-word without consequences in and out of the classroom, therefore his experience must be discriminatory because he is white.

I’ll pause while you roll your eyes.

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As reported by Law.com, the lawsuit characterizes the disciplinary process as problematic:

According to the suit, after Zwier was suspended, he complained to the chairman of the university’s Faculty Hearing Committee that the disciplinary action imposed was discriminatory. As a result, the suit claims that the law school’s then-interim dean, James Hughes, recommended the committee fire Zwier and strip him of his tenure.

According to the suit, after an October 2019 private hearing that lasted two days, the faculty committee issued a decision finding that neither the interim dean nor Emory had demonstrated adequate cause to revoke Zwier’s tenure and directed that Zwier be reinstated.

But according to the suit, the committee withheld its determination for several months “because of unfounded fears pressed upon it by the law school that a favorable decision in Zwier’s favor would cause a wave of antipathy and negative publicity for the law school and Emory.”

Zwier also takes issue with letters Hughes wrote to the Emory community that paint Zwier’s use of the n-word as a result of white supremacy.

A Emory spokesperson said the school “disagrees with the characterization of what occurred, and will vigorously defend itself against this lawsuit.”

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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