The University Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights released a statement Friday saying UW Law School professor Leonard Kaplan's academic freedoms—and the academic rights of all UW-Madison professors—must be protected, after Kaplan was accused of making racist remarks regarding Hmong people in his Feb. 15 Legal Process class.
""There is a distinct possibility that the emotion and pressures surrounding this case—especially after the public meeting at the law school the evening of March 1—will have a chilling effect on honest and good faith discussion of racial and cultural issues in class and on campus,"" the statement said.
""There is a fundamental distinction between causing offense gratuitously and invidiously, and causing offense as the by-product of the fair-minded pursuit of truth or constructive criticism,"" it continues.
""A university of the caliber of UW-Madison, with its long history and tradition of protecting academic freedom in the ‘fearless sifting and winnowing of ideas' for the pursuit of truth, must take this distinction seriously.""
Kaplan said at a weekly faculty meeting Friday that his remarks— circulated in an e-mail by UW law student KaShia Moua, who was not in the class Feb. 15—were misinterpreted. He told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he plans to release a ""compassionate"" but lawyerly written statement explaining the comments.
Moua's e-mail, obtained by The Capital Times, quoted Kaplan as saying, ""Hmong men have no talent other than to kill,"" ""All second-generation Hmong end up in gangs and other criminal activity,"" ""All Hmong men purchase their wives, so if he wants to have sex with his wife and she doesn't consent, you and I call it rape, but the Hmong guy is thinking, ‘Man, I paid too much for her!'""
Non-Hmong students in Kaplan's class told the Journal Sentinel the e-mail misquoted Kaplan's remarks.
Kaplan declined comment Sunday evening, saying his statement ""will be available shortly.""
