REGRETS

Iowa College Professor Sidelined After Using N-Word to Make Point

He says he was comparing the slur to the use of “redskins” by sports teams.

An Iowa college professor says he will no longer be teaching on campus after student backlash over his use of the N-word in class. John Bolen, who was working part-time at Simpson College, told the Des Moines Register that he was arguing that the Washington Redskins shouldn’t be using a term derogatory to Native Americans. “It would be the same thing as having a team called like, uh, the Florida [N-word],” he told the students, one of whom was recording him. Some of the students reportedly walked out of the class. “I wish I hadn’t done it because it communicated the wrong thing to students,” Bolen told the Register, but added, “I still think the argument I made was a good one because I'm just as offended by the R-word we hear every NFL Sunday.”