Bellevue Community College is barely a blip on the radar screen in the Puget Sound academic world, but has suddenly stumbled on to almost national prominence. Not the attention that you would want for a school but hopefully the long term results will work for a long term positive gain.
Peter Ratener has taught mathematics for 25 year at BCC. He made what would seem to be a very serious mistake, an exam question was "Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300 foot Federal Building, and tosses it up will a velocity of 20 feet per second..." Of course Condaleezza Rice is our Secretary of State, the first black woman to hold that position. Dr Rice, in spite of her politics can held up as an outstanding role model for African American youth. Watermelon is a symbol used in characatures of Blacks throughout history.
At first glance Ratener's actions could be seen as blatantly racist. There is no doubt that the question was extremely inappropriate for an academic exam. However I don't think most of us know of the gravity of such a symbol. On prime time TV we see stereotypes consistently, an Asian man practices martial arts on one reality show. A Jewish mother may recommend chicken soup on another. Mr Ratener probably thought that this exam was no more offensive than asking for chopsticks at a Chinese Restaurant.
Mr Ratener has apologized for the incident and BCC has taken steps toward sensitivity training and staffing. I think it is time to let the anger subside and use this for a learning experience.
I think it's a lot of fun and people shouldn't take it seriously, the whole business with Rice-cakes and the melon. Chill out. When I heard she was tossing watermelons, I figured she was into something useful that wouldn't lead to another war. For more on contemporary issues, go to www.cheezymovies.blogspot.com for my latest post on F. Scott Fitzgerald the lush movie.
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