“The whole thing started on Wednesday,” [Chiitaanibah] Johnson told ICTMN. “He was talking about Native America and he said the word genocide. He paused and said ‘I don’t like to use that word because I think it is too strong for what happened’ and ‘Genocide implies that it was on purpose and most native people were wiped out by European diseases.”
Johnson, who was offended, did not at first respond to the professor’s comments.
“I wrote it down. I was enraged for what I felt were obvious reasons. I didn’t say anything (on Wednesday) because I knew that if I didn’t have anything specific to back it up in terms of tangible or solid evidence that he would not take my comments into consideration,” she said.
On Friday, Johnson presented her research to the professor after his discussion on the Iroquois Confederacy and the Portuguese expeditions.
“He made it a point to say indigenous people were not peaceful. I was upset for obvious reasons. he’d mentioned how the French and the Dutch were allies and made it a point to say native people were killing each other before white settlers arrived.”
Johnson says that she understands that there were native conflicts before settlers arrived, but when the professor talked about the bravery of Portuguese expeditions without emphasis on the slave trade she again grew upset.
“On Friday, I raised my hand and I said, ‘I understand why we’re talking about the Portuguese people because it explains how they got to America. but I do not think it is fair to talk about Portuguese people as if they were only poor and brave. They became rich by raping and enslaving the indigenous lands and people that they “discovered,” says Johnson.
Johnson says that when she asked why the Professor did not talk about any sort of Iroquoian technological advances or spirituality and then asked about her Professors stance on genocide, The Professor grew volatile and rolled his eyes several times.
“I told him, ‘you said genocide implies the purposeful extermination of people and that they were mostly wiped out by European diseases.” I said, “that is not a true statement.”
“He said, ‘Genocide is not what happened.’ I stood up and started reading from an article by the United Nations that said: Genocide is the deliberate killing of another people, a sterilization of people and/or a kidnapping of their children,” and he said, ‘That is enough.’
I said, ‘no. you have to tell the truth.’
He said, ‘if you want to come talk to me after class, now is not the time, you are hijacking my class.”
After a bit more discussion which Johnson says became heated, the Professor dismissed the class. Additionally, other students defended the professor.
“He said, ‘you know what class? I am so sorry to everybody that this is happening. Please everyone come back on Wednesday have a good weekend.’
After the class was dismissed, Johnson said she was expelled from the course by her professor.
“He said, ‘I do not appreciate this in my classroom.’ He began shaking his finger at me and said, ‘I don’t appreciate you making me sound like a racist and a bigot in my classroom. You have hijacked my lesson, taken everything out of context and I don’t care what kind of scholarship you have, or what kind of affiliation you have with the University, you will be disenrolled and expelled from this classroom.”