“OK, boomer” is the new N-word?
That’s what a University of Oklahoma journalism professor says.
In case you’re not perusing reddit.com or Tik Tok daily, the term “OK, boomer” is a put down. “OK boomer is a viral internet slang phrase used, often in a humorous or ironic manner, to call out or dismiss out-of-touch or close-minded opinions associated with the baby boomer generation and older people more generally,” dictionary.com says.
Peter Gade, director of graduate studies at the university’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, decided the phrase was tantamount to the N word — and actually used the racial slur during a class when declaring his opinion. “Calling someone a boomer is like calling someone a n***er,” he said, according to the college’s newspaper, OU Daily.
The university immediately called out the professor.
“Today a professor stated in his senior journalism class that there is an equivalence between the offensiveness of ‘OK, Boomer’ and the use of the ‘N-word,’ using the actual word itself,” interim president Joseph Harroz Jr. said in a statement.
“While the professor’s comments are protected by the First Amendment and academic freedom, his comment and word choice are fundamentally offensive and wrong,” Harroz said. “The use of the most offensive word, by a person in a position of authority, hurt and minimized those in the classroom and beyond. Our University must serve as an example to our society of both freedom of expression and understanding and tolerance. His words today failed to meet this standard. #WeAre speaks for our community; his words today do not.”
OU’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists also condemned the incident. “We are not surprised by the actions of the professor who ironically teaches Journalism, Ethics and Democracy,” the group said in a statement. “Nor are we surprised that people still don’t understand that insults like ‘OK, boomer’ do not create the same uneasiness that the historical slur ni**er does.”
Ed Kelley, dean of Gaylord College, told the OU Daily that university officials plan to investigate the incident.
“We wanted to hear from (the students) exactly, not only what was said, but in the context what was said. And then just importantly, their reaction to what was said,” Kelley said. “We also are going to reach out today and try to talk to the African American students who are in the class … We want to get their perspective as well, if they want to share with us, and they don’t have to.”
Kelley said students have shared with them that they feel uncomfortable, but they are in a “fact-finding” mode right now to hear from as many students as possible, then to share what they’ve learned with Gade and pursue next steps.
“We’re going to try to figure out a way that we can resolve … the real issues that they have, in a way that we can all here in the college go forward,” Kelley said. “We’re trying to work through this as best we know how, and I think the best process that we know has to be as open and aboveboard as we can be and, listening to students today is job one.”