UPDATED NOV. 24, 2:17 p.m. PT: An anecdote of a coach calling him a “N-(expletive)” made up a section in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s autobiography, “On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance.” That anecdote also made up a section in professor Ahmed Younis’ Introduction to Human Rights course at Chapman University, in which Younis told The Panther he used the “N-(expletive)” expression not as a racial slur, but instead as a mode to ensure Abdul-Jabbar’s voice in the novel remains whole. That motive did not translate to Aissata Sall, a freshman peace studies major in Younis’ class.

Sall took offense to the professor’s position as an educator using historically berating and belittling language. She told The Panther she spoke up about her discomfort and Younis had apologized to her, adding that he could use a trigger warning in the future, but said he disagrees with her perspective.

“I just didn’t know how to respond to that,” Sall said. “This is not something we can disagree about; non-Black people can’t use that word … It’s really exhausting, especially in an Introduction to Human Rights class where you’re supposed to know better and be changing the world.”

After Younis had used the term in class, Sall found a YouTube video of the professor’s podcast episode, in which he poses a theoretical question about the derogatory slur.

“Can you say ‘N-(expletive)’ as a non-Black person in America?” Younis asked in the episode. “My opinion is, ‘Yes, you absolutely can.’”

Self-identifying as Black, Younis comes from a global background, growing up in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He believes people can use the “N-(expletive)” term when relaying someone’s own Black experience or when citing a Black person, but denounced the slur’s use among non-Black people in any other context.

However, Sall referenced the nationwide census to refute Younis’ claims of being Black. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, a white individual is someone who has “origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.”

“They didn’t have to go through (the racial connotations) and the N-word wasn’t used against them as harshly,” Sall said. “That argument (of using the original wording) is stupid … That’s the same as saying, ‘It’s in the song, so I should be able to say it.’”

Younis has served in both former President Barack Obama’s administration and sitting President Donald Trump’s administration in the U.S. Department of State. When teaching on the Abu Ghraib prison system in Iraq, Younis used the “F-(expletive)” slur, which he said was taken from transcripts of detainee interrogations. Similarly citing his efforts to promote unvarnished accounts of history, Younis has used his network to bring in guest speakers, like a U.S. Army officer tortured by an Abu Ghraib general, to offer their firsthand experiences.

Younis said he respects Sall’s opinion, but argues that authentic representation of history in academia is crucial to learning the historical complexities of subjects like race. Shying away, he said, would “sugarcoat reality and oppression and history.” 

“I’ve never seen an academic environment that bars one from teaching the truth,” Younis told The Panther. “We must teach truth, not massage it to make it commercial and politically palatable.”

Prior to getting in touch with Sall, The Panther reached out to Albert Roberson, an officer at Chapman University’s Equal Opportunity and Diversity Office. Roberson told The Panther Nov. 19 that the office will discuss the matter with Younis “immediately.” Sall later told The Panther Nov. 20 that she intended to file a complaint to the office, which she did Nov. 24.

“Him using those words felt like a punch to my stomach,” Sall wrote to the Equal Opportunity and Diversity Office in an email forwarded to The Panther. “There is a history to those slurs and I don’t think he adequately took that into consideration before using them.”

Speaking on eroding American values, Younis suggested pop culture may ruin the integrity of universities by removing a professor’s academic obligation and First Amendment right to educate according to reality. He cites “The Oxford Handbook of International Relations” in his class and said that although some students may feel uncomfortable with the career field, abridging context or ignoring slurs will serve as an injustice to the very real truths of the past.

“If I dilute the experience of the civil rights pioneers of America, in teaching two or three or four generations later, what contribution have I made to justice in this country?” Younis said. “This is not a high school; this is a university. You cannot have a critical understanding of reality unless you understand history as it’s experienced subjectively by the oppressed.”

This is a developing story. Follow The Panther on social media and at www.thepanthernewspaper.org for updates.

Correction: The video in which Younis asks, “Can you say ‘N-(expletive)’ as a non-Black person in America? My opinion is, ‘Yes, you absolutely can,’” was intended for his podcast. The video did not appear in Younis’ classroom lectures. This information has been corrected.