English professor’s future unclear after students uncover explicit images of him on social media
Reports of sexual and pornographic content began circulating on an anonymous social media site in early February
It is unclear whether English professor Dr. Omaar Hena will be returning to Wake Forest to teach next semester or at any point in the future.
In early February, posts began to circulate on the anonymous social media app Fizz about associate English professor Dr. Omaar Hena. The posts referred to photos and videos Hena posted of himself on Instagram and Reddit, which ranged from sexually suggestive to pornographic.
Hena has been posting sexually explicit content of himself on the internet for at least the past seven years, an English professor told the Old Gold & Black on condition of anonymity. The professor also said the content had caused discomfort among some faculty members familiar with them. Hena did not immediately take down the images — a few of which are still viewable on Reddit — in which he is naked and fully identifiable, even as student chatter about the images swept Fizz. He continued to teach his undergraduate and graduate classes.
That changed in mid-February when students received an email that Hena had been put on a leave of absence. The email gave no explanation as to why Hena may have been placed on leave. Hena’s 200-level English course and first year seminar were picked up by colleagues. The Old Gold & Black learned from a source who declined to be identified that a Title IX complaint was filed against Hena, though we could not confirm how or if the complaint is connected with Hena’s sexually explicit online behavior. Additionally, although Wake Forest’s Title IX policy allows the university to put a professor on leave if there is a complaint against them, it is unclear whether the complaint is related to Hena’s leave of absence.
Title IX complaints cover a range of allegations. The Old Gold & Black’s reporting does not suggest sexual contact between Hena and students. Title IX Director Aishah Casseus told the Old Gold & Black that she could not confirm or deny the existence of a Title IX complaint and therefore declined to comment.
Hena did not respond to the Old Gold & Black’s repeated requests for comment. Chair of the Department of English Dr. Jeff Holdridge, Provost Dr. Michele Gillespie, Interim Dean of the College Dr. Tony Marsh all repeatedly declined to comment.
It is unknown if Hena will be returning to teach at Wake Forest. On Feb. 22, Hena’s name was included on a list of Fall 2023 English courses in a presentation shown at the Department of English’s new major orientation. Currently, Hena is not listed as teaching any Fall 2023 courses on the registration portal, available through the Wake Information Network (WIN).
After Hena became the topic of conversation on Fizz, students began to follow him on Instagram. The same source who told the Old Gold & Black about the Title IX complaint also said that Hena would communicate with current undergraduates, graduate students and former students at night via social media. The Old Gold & Black reviewed conversations over Instagram direct messages between one sophomore, whom the Old Gold & Black will not name for privacy reasons, and Hena. The conversations began on February 10, 2023, at 6:40 p.m. Hena messaged the student first, saying “Thanks so much for following!” with a purple heart emoji. The student replied “of course !” to which Hena responded: “Love your queer energy. And I’ve been a fan of wake radio people forever” with purple heart, sparkle and rainbow emojis. Hena and the student continued to chat, and Hena told the student he would be willing to “meet up for a drink” with her and “any folks” in Wake Radio.
While the university’s faculty handbook makes it clear that sexual relationships between students and faculty are prohibited, the handbook is rather vague when it comes to outlining what faculty can and cannot do online.
If Hena violated university policy, it is likely a violation of this statement: “Faculty are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with generally accepted standards of conduct and behavior for the profession.”
It is also unknown how Hena’s online behavior became apparent to students, but it became the dominant subject on Fizz two months ago. Some of the posts made jokes about Hena while others expressed sympathy for him and even outrage that he was no longer teaching at Wake Forest.
One user posted: “F*ck y’all for getting Omaar Hena fired. Even though he posts heinous things, it’s his choice, and he was by far the best professor I’ve had at this school.” That post received 164 upvotes.
Another user wrote: “Let’s all go on strike to bring Omaar Hena back.”
In a February 2023 post on Rate My Professors, a student gave Hena a 5 out of 5 rating and commented: “His online persona is inappropriate, however, he is a great professor with great insight on the topics he teaches.”
For other students, Hena’s online behavior negatively impacts their perception of him as a person and professor.
One student on Rate My Professors gave Hena a 1 out of 5, the lowest possible score, and commented “@omaarcomin Very inappropriate Instagram.”
Hena’s Instagram, now under the handle @oiedevivre (previously @omaarcomin), is now on private. His Instagram content is milder than his Reddit account. The Old Gold & Black reviewed an Instagram post of Hena posing in an Aladdin costume in a Wake Forest classroom — listing “Wake Forest University” as the photo’s location. One commenter @janescluesman wrote “Has anyone asked for a magic carpet ride yet?” employing a “grinning face with sweat” emoji to which Hena responded “OMFGG I wish!!!,” employing a “woman genie” emoji. (Editor’s Note: All emoji characterizations come from unicode.org).
In some videos on Reddit, Hena is seen fondling his genitals while looking into the camera. In many photos, which contain suggestive captions such as “wanna ride?” or “dirty dirty boy,” Hena is posed so his body and genitals are visible. In at least one photo that is still viewable on the site, both Hena’s face and genitals are visible.
One student in Hena’s first year seminar, who spoke to the Old Gold & Black on the condition of anonymity, said that she first heard about Hena’s online presence at a fraternity party, when a friend showed her Hena’s Instagram.
“When I was in class [afterward], I never really thought about it again,” the freshman said. “It never really weirded me out.”
The Old Gold & Black reached out to other students in Hena’s classes and in the English department, who all either declined or did not respond to the Old Gold & Black’s requests for comment. At least three female English majors on staff at the Old Gold & Black have said that they would not feel comfortable in a classroom with Hena teaching. Other staffers, both male and female, however, did not share that concern.
Another Fizz post raised concerns about how Hena’s actions might affect the university’s reputation, especially since prospective and newly admitted students are joining Fizz to observe Wake Forest culture. On Admitted Students Day, a user shared a meme with the caption: “Class of ‘27 browsing fizz and seeing that the school nearly blew up, has shit food, not enough housing, not enough classes, had a shooting scare, and had a professor making pornos.”
The post received more than 900 upvotes.
The question remains whether Hena, a well-liked, tenured professor who is an undergraduate alumnus and has taught for more than 15 years at Wake Forest, will return to the classroom come August or any other time in the future.
Aine Pierre contributed reporting to this article.
Christa is a junior from Raleigh, North Carolina, majoring English and minoring in journalism and communication. She spends her free time reading, running...
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Bob • Apr 30, 2023 at 5:38 am
Is anyone gonna say the Reddit username though?
Anonymous • May 3, 2023 at 5:01 pm
The profile has been deleted, but unfortunately (for him? for us?) Reddit archives photos and videos even if the account has been deleted.
Just search his name in the Reddit search bar and you’ll find it.
He should’ve probably not linked his SnapChat account (which was just his full name) to the posts as well
Anonymous • Apr 29, 2023 at 9:01 am
If you can’t speak to the title ix violations maybe you shouldn’t say anything at all, Jes. Did you not read the part where he asked an underage student out for drinks? Or made references to being upset no one asked him for a magic carpet ride at school? Maya Angelou didn’t come to class shirtless and would have been fired if she did. Hena made no effort to keep sex outside of work when he absolutely has a responsibility to. I’m all for queer representation and sex positive stances but not when you have a moral imperative to your students to keep your graphic porn separate from them (especially when there could be minors in your FYS class of freshmen). Hena is an adult. His students might not be. He should know better and DO BETTER. If he had worked hard to keep it all separate from his work and students had found it on their own, I’d be entirely on his side. But he was inviting students in to see it all and ASKING SOPHOMORES OUT FOR DRINKS and that is so ridiculous another wake professor thinks that’s fine, ESPECIALLY after admitting ignorance to what must be a serious title ix case
Jes Bolduc • Apr 30, 2023 at 6:30 pm
I understand this is a sensitive topic that elicits emotional responses. I was very deliberate in what I mentioned (and what I didn’t) about Hena’s behavior. I’d also like to point out there is no verified Title IX violation at this moment. I’m actually not here to argue about whether Hena did or did not do all of this. All I’m saying is this invites a conversation much larger than the one we are having. For example, you say keeping sex outside of work when he has a responsibility to…isn’t he teaching gender and sexuality? Could this whole thing not be perceived as research or performance art around those topics? I do not pretend to know Professor Hena’s motivations for sharing theirself the way they have chosen to, but how we respond to this incident will dictate how we respond to other similar incidents and we need to be careful about that. How do we define the lines? Just because students are made uncomfortable? I’m not sure that is a good idea unless he was specifically directly behaving inappropriately with them. I, of course, believe safety is important, both physically and pyschologically. I’m just saying consider the extrapolated implications of the lines we choose.
My point is that often sex-positive people are demonized and discriminated against, and their behaviors can be taken out of context and be used against them when the ingroup gets thirsty enough. I’m not sure this is happening, but we should be mindful and examine the possibility. If we are not careful, we will collectively create an environment that will exclude folks, including students, from the institution that have valuable contributions to make.
Ryan • May 4, 2023 at 6:31 am
Please, do not confuse being sex positive with antisocial personality disorder. This abhorrent conduct is a clear example of someone who doesn’t respect boundaries and who very likely will go further if his behavior gets validated by admitting him back.
Jes Bolduc • Apr 28, 2023 at 11:56 am
It surprises me this is news. Hena is a grown adult who has an identity outside of their occupation, which I think we need to be mindful/careful of an employer’s ability to dictate sexual expression outside of work. Students sought out Hena’s posts on their own freewill. From what I can tell, praising someone’s queer energy is not inherently sexual nor predatory. I see it as affirmation for a marginalized youth from a queer elder, which in some cases can be life-changing/life-saving.
I cannot speak to Title IX violation allegations, but otherwise, I think as an academic institution we need to consider our attitude towards sex-positive individuals and be sure that we aren’t letting whorephobia and regressive Puritanical idealogies muddy our interpretation of their forms of self-expression. Respectability politics are so arbitrary. The late, great Maya Angelou, another Wake community member, chronicled her time as a sex worker in her own memoir, Gather Together in my Name. Did the Black and Gold run a story on that? As we, the intellectual class, expand to be more inclusive and diverse, we better be prepared for more individuals like Dr. Angelou and Dr. Hena. Sex and sexuality are part of the human experience, and the academy should not, in my opinion, seek to strip its community of that.
Wake Community Member • Apr 29, 2023 at 9:36 am
Hi Jes,
I think that your comment is implicitly hitting on an important issue, which is the unacceptable potential for queerphobic or homophobic retaliation against Professor Hena. You are right to bring this issue up. I am concerned, however, that this comment implies that being in “the intellectual class” somehow precludes us from basic standards of ethical and professional behavior.
I am not concerned about a professor’s private life. We, however, are not talked about a professor’s private life; we are talking about a life that was made explicitly public on an explicitly public platform (hence the clearly articulated delineations between Public social media and Private social media). It is not fair — and, frankly, I think, an exercise in victim-blaming — to dismiss students’ encounters with this content by saying that they “sought out Hena’s posts [of] their own freewill.” This suggestion does not demonstrate an understanding of how social media works amongst college-aged students, many of whom did not see that content “[of] their own freewill” and instead had it showed to them without their knowledge or consent about what they were going to see.
An 18-year-old does not have a fully developed frontal lobe. They do not have the robust worldly experience to carefully evaluate when they might be manipulated by a person in a position of power over them, which is exactly what happens when individuals in power seek out and contact students on Instagram unsolicited. Is it really an exercise in free expression to ask underage students out to drinks? To come to class without being dressed appropriately for the workplace? We might also think back to a recent campus climate survey, where 75.6% of female respondents reported experiencing sexual misconduct. Since when is the “intellectual class” entitled to levy sex positivity at all costs, including at the expense of their young students? Would you, as an undergraduate, have felt comfortable asking a professor to change their clothing if they were dressed inappropriately in your classroom? I wouldn’t have. An obvious power dynamic is being exploited here, which is one of the reasons why workplaces have policies and standards regarding online behavior.
I want to reiterate that there is a CLEAR delineation between public and private here, one that is endorsed by the individual in question when they knowingly, consciously publicize aspects of their life (and, I should add, make content that is not public — like the content of Close Friends Instagram stories — visible to student viewers without their consent or knowledge).
Perhaps stronger pedagogical training for educators in higher ed settings would help clarify these power disparities.
Jes Bolduc • Apr 30, 2023 at 2:08 pm
It’s interesting the mention of (i.e. subtle ad hominem attacks) stronger pedagogical training as if I am unaware of the power disparities, and the mention of ethics and professionalism. It’s exactly because of my ethics and professionalism that I was encouraging us, as an academic body, to be careful when evaluating this situation taking careful note of where our ethics and professionalism end and our biases, both conscious and unconscious begin. As you mention, queer phobia, yes, but as I mentioned whorephobia, also. The decisions made about Dr. Hena and this situation will undoubtedly ripple out and I can see it setting, in my opinion, a scary precedent. What if a sexuality professor teaches on Magglethorpe? What if they have a tumblr dedicated to ethical, feminist porn? What if an art professor paints nude selfies? I mean, there are many ways this same discussion could manifest so I am saying, we need to pause and be careful. I also think about what disqualifies people from the academy in the future. If a person had an onlyfans? If an old social media account featured explicit content? Many of our current students and the next generation could be disqualified depending on the types of rules that extrapolate out from this very situation.
As for suggesting I am victim blaming because I think 18 year olds encountering content on the internet not necessarily intended for them is just going to happen….I think that is a bit a of a stretch. You even admit that it’s through the nature of social media all of us encounter content we may or may not consent to. I was very deliberate in my defense (or omission of mention) regarding Dr. Hena’s alleged actions, suggesting we consider how this will affect the larger cultural ideas at play here.
Jesalyn Bolduc • May 2, 2023 at 12:45 pm
I am disturbed by the lack of thoughtful, nuanced discussion around Professor Hena’s situation, and the lack of foresight for what this situation at Wake can/will contribute in the larger cultural struggle which is targeting trans, queer, LGBTQ+ people.
Currently, in this state, drag performers reading to children are being accused of being groomers, accused of being harmful to children, and are met with hostile protestors. There is legislation up for consideration in this state that would ban drag. Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first openly trans person elected to the Montana state legislature, was recently silenced and barred from the House floor for protesting restriction of gender-affirming care for minors. In my opinion, the language around Hena’s situation, particularly in the comments, echoes (and is complicit to) the demonization of queer and/or sex-positive people that ultimately creates harm and violence.
I do not know if Professor Hena did anything wrong. Until there is substantiation of a Title IX violation, if there will be one, I cannot make that call from the evidence presented. The only substantial infraction from the report I can consider is dressing inappropriately for work….once….which as far as I know, is not a Title IX violation nor a fireable offense. The comment about magic carpet rides…I cannot find the account via the searchbar that made that comment. It is not clear if that was a student or not.
Making adult content outside of work is not inherently wrong. Being unashamed and open about making that content is also not inherently wrong. Did he show it to students on campus? Did he send explicit content to them directly? From what was reported, no. Students found it and then spread it around. During the spread, which was perpetuated by students, some students saw it without giving consent. This harm is unfairly being attributed to Hena for creating it in the first place, rather than acknowledging that sometimes this happens on the internet and that it was students spreading the content without checking for consent beforehand, not with Hena, but those they were showing. The spread drove more students to follow his social media accounts where they saw more explicit content. To put another way: Adult made adult content that other adults consumed but were scandalized by said content because it was created by someone they knew.
If at any point students who followed Hena’s social media were uncomfortable with content he was posting, they could have unfollowed. This is the nature of the internet and being an adult on the internet. We all encounter content we may or may not consent to, some of which may make us uncomfortable, and it is our individual responsibility to curate our feeds (or friends) accordingly. Eighteen-year-olds, while yes, lacking the robust, worldly experience and lacking fully-developed frontal lobes, are no exception. If you can sign up for the army and you can vote, you can encounter people whose lifestyle makes you squirm and then decide to look away instead of asking them to stop being themselves.
In reference to student safety, let’s think about that. Being uncomfortable is not the same as being threatened or being unsafe. Being made uncomfortable does not equal victimization, so for me to question the allegations against Hena does not mean I am victim-blaming. Who did Hena victimize? As I mentioned in my first comment on the original Old Black and Gold article, Professor Hena’s interaction with the student (who followed him first) could be interpreted differently than predatory. But because of his liberated, sex-positive lifestyle, we are making assumptions and interpretating it as a threat. An unabashed porn creator does not a predator make. Just like a drag queen reading stories to children is not sexual. It was stated in the comments that this was an “obvious” abuse of a power dynamic. Sorry, but it’s not so obvious to me. It feels like pearl-clutching, not unlike the kind queer and trans folks are subject to all the time.
Let us not overstate harm here. As a genderqueer person, my very existence makes some people uncomfortable, perhaps even some of my students. And this will probably continue as long as sex and gender are conflated, thus causing people to sexualize my gender expression (notably…without my consent) even though they’re separate things. Should I also be dismissed from the academy, too?
To get at this larger cultural issue, a recent study by Solano et al in the Journal of Sex Research (2020 Jan) showed that out of 1,392 adults, ages 18-73, 91.5% of men and 60.2% of women consumed pornography (through written, photographic, and video modalities). Onlyfans is the 52nd most popular website in the entire US (usesignhouse dot com). Clearly, many people are happy to benefit from porn yet the content creators are discarded and pushed to the fringes of society. Why? More specifically, why should people participating in porn be omitted from the academy? From Wake?
We also have no clear definition of what is pornographic. I just published a poetry zine where nude bodies are included. I do performance art where I use nude bodies as paintbrushes. Is that pornographic? I don’t necessarily hide my art online. A student could see a flyer for a performance or exhibition and attend without my knowledge. Could all of this be taken out of context to paint me as a predator? Without a clear definition of pornographic, along with my queer, sex-positive identity, and the reaction to Hena, I feel at risk, yes. Not to mention the fact that my integrity, ethics, and professionalism were attacked in the comments simply for pointing out that we needed to think about this situation carefully.
The article stated: “If Hena violated university policy, it is likely a violation of this statement: “Faculty are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with generally accepted standards of conduct and behavior for the profession.” This statement is problematic as hell. Queerness is about not fitting into generally accepted anything. Of course, I’m not advocating for sexual relationships between students and faculty. Of course, I’m not saying we levy sex-positivity at all costs. I’m simply pointing out that historically sex-positive individuals, queer people, POC have all been discriminated against and Hena is 3 for 3 in those categories, so…you know, let’s think critically and examine where our ethics end and our biases begin. Vagueness around “generally accepted standards of conduct” can be abused to harm marginalized people.
While this is unprecedented for professors maybe, our interpretation of sexual expression when we equate queer sexual expression with predation (queer in this sense is used to mean deviating from the norm) means that we risk discrimination against marginalized groups at the faculty, staff, and student level. It is also worth pointing out that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ are more likely to participate in creating porn or in sex-work because the capital gained from participation alleviates compounding disadvantages that come from those intersectional identities. It makes other opportunities possible. Additionally, these avenues can also offer liberation from repression, healing of sexual trauma, etc. How Hena’s case is handled will send a message to everyone about what “culture” Wake wants to promote, who is respectable enough to be here, how we stand with labor rights, etc. etc, so we have to think about that.
Wake Community Member • May 3, 2023 at 8:20 am
Ok, I’ve thought and thought about whether or not I should respond to this. I fear that we could go back in forth in perpetuity with arsenals of data and respective ideological confidence.
OR.
I can be a person (not just a person-behind-a-screen) and say two things to you in earnest:
1. I ask you to please not assume that disagreeing with you about aspects of this issue is the same thing as lacking nuance or foresight about how marginalized communities can and will be impacted by this. You are presently speaking to another individual that occupies multiple marginalized identities, too. Recall that we can both disagree and have shared ideologies.
2. I ask you to please not assume that anyone is “overstating harm” when university investigations are confidential for the parties involved and, thus, are not elaborated on in this article.
Jes Bolduc • May 3, 2023 at 2:42 pm
I appreciate your sincerity and the acknowledgement that we are both people.
I ask that you please not assume anyone disagreeing with the interpretation of the events as presented in this article lacks ethics, professionalism, or awareness of what constitutes sexual misconduct.
I ask that you please not assume someone asking valid questions about consent is “victim-blaming”.
Wake Student • May 2, 2023 at 2:01 pm
Hi Dr. Bolduc,
Much of what your prior respondent has said resonates with me and I feel compelled to share my own perspective as a student at Wake.
I agree with you that Dr. Hena is well within his right as a human to engage in whatever legal consensual sexual activity he might enjoy outside of his professional involvement with the university. This is not the issue at hand. However, when Dr. Hena sexualizes his workplace, going so far as to tag WFU as the location for a sexually provocative image, the line between in-workplace and outside-of-workplace life is blurred, if not wholly overstepped. Yes, we should be careful and mindful of an employer’s ability to dictate sexual expression outside of work, but when this sexual expression enters the bounds of the workplace, it seems to be within an employer’s right to reconsider employment.
While I understand your point about how Dr. Hena’s DM could be seen as imparting support to a marginalized youth, I am unsure of how offering to meet up with potentially underage students for a drink can fit into the picture of providing lifesaving affirmation of one’s queer identity. There are many other ways for Dr. Hena to provide the affirmation you describe while remaining within the bounds of professionalism. Additionally, I echo that being a member of the “intellectual class” is not an excuse to abandon basic decency when interacting with your subordinates: college students who may not even be over 18. I actually would argue the opposite, that it behooves those who display the ability for the higher level thinking that is required to be a member of the intellectual class to carefully consider the implications of their actions. As members of the “intellectual class,” I feel that we especially are called to think critically about the impact of our actions, both online and offline, before carrying them out.
I see your note comparing Dr. Hena and Maya Angelou. The comparison you seem to be drawing is that both Dr. Hena and Maya Angelou have engaged in sexual activity that might be considered improper or taboo. While I am able to see where you are coming from, I find it to be a disgrace to Maya Angelou’s honor to compare her to a man who has not only solicited their students in the way that this article has portrayed Dr. Hena as doing, but also has unresolved Title IX allegations against him.
It is unfortunate that Dr. Hena may no longer be able to teach at Wake; it seems that students have found his courses to be a positive learning experience. I do believe though, that the university has a large enough pool of qualified choices for professors that they will be able to recruit and hire professors who will deliver the same quality educational experience without the entanglement of sexual gratification and professional life. As another respondent has identified, we must avoid making this about queerphobia; the problems with Dr. Hena’s actions are irrelevant to his sexual orientation, rather they stem from a lack of regard for boundaries between professor and student, between personal and professional life.
Jes Bolduc • May 3, 2023 at 11:24 am
This is my point: there is no clear “solicitation”. Asking someone if they’d like to get a drink IN A GROUP is a fairly neutral proposition. It’s not a solicitation for sex. It is not uncommon, for example, for undergraduates who are participating in undergraduate scientific research in labs here at Wake to be present at lab dinners where alcohol is present and there are informal interactions between them and superiors. It is also not uncommon in Belgium, where the drinking age is lower, for undergraduates to have drinks with their professors at the college bar. I say all of that to say the definition of professionalism is being taken for granted and assumptions about Hena’s intentions (and even his actions, which are open to interpretation) are being made, most likely because of his proclivities outside of work, and probably because of the sexual regression so prominent and pronounced in the US, especially the south.
It is possible he did not know the student’s age, unless they had it in their bio and he saw it, but these are details we do not know. The way we fill in the gaps of meaning reflect on us more than Hena. The sexualization of this DM exchange is occurring from the observer and is influenced by our biases against Hena and the sexual politics he embodies.
Same with the Aladdin cosplay. You characterize it as provocative. Shirtless is inappropriate for a workplace, yes, but that again is not inherently sexual and it’s definitely not a solicitation for sex. It’s Aladdin cosplay. If a female professor decides to stop wearing bras and you see her nipples through her shirt, is this unprofessional? Why or why not?
However, because of the other information about his outside life, it is quite easy to jump to conclusions that Hena is “the bad one” here. The response to Hena here on this thread reminds me of Carolyn Bryant, the woman who accused Emmett Till of sexual assault. She was the one who made up sexual fantasy. She sexualized the boy and then weaponised her own sexualization of him against him.
Getting a Title IX violation filed against him, even though that isn’t even verified according to this report, does not mean he is guilty. He could be, but even then, what I am saying about all of this in the larger context is still valid. This is why bringing up Dr. Angelou was also valid. I was not inferring her conduct was improper. Just the opposite.
anonymous • May 4, 2023 at 9:33 am
oh my god i know you did not just compare a grown man who posted himself masturbating with the caption “wanna ride?” to EMMETT TILL
are you insane?? that is so horrifyingly tone deaf
Jes Bolduc • May 4, 2023 at 2:56 pm
I was specifically comparing a person participating in Aladdin cosplay being sexualized and then demonized for eliciting that specific reaction out of people, his character assassinated …pointing out how that is a parallel of what happened to Emmett Till, who, as we all know, was brutally assassinated at the hands of white supremacists.
A logical argument omits Hena’s online behavior outside of work because it really has no bearing on whether or not Hena is guilty of misconduct with students or if his Aladdin cosplay is “sexually provocative”. But go off, I guess.
I fully acknowledge there may be details not included in this article that led to this investigation. I hope, in reality, no students were hurt. But my goodness, if it’s just what is presented here, and he is dismissed, then that is a shame, a tragedy, and sets a very scary precedent.
Lastly, I’m thoroughly disappointed to see how this “community” and it’s “community members” engage with alternative perspectives like my own or anyone questioning the dominant lines of thought. How it is unable to handle uncomfortable topics and disagreements in a civil manner without questioning someone’s sanity, for example, or taking an argument someone is making and sensationalizing it to where it’s then out of context completely.
I’ve made all the points I wanted to make.
Kay • May 4, 2023 at 3:29 pm
……. your comparison of a grown man’s real, questionable behavior to Emmett Till, 14-year-old victimized by a hate crime after a false accusation, is abhorrent and appalling, no wonder you’re defensive about your ~ethics~ and ~professionalism~ my god
Anonymous2 • May 4, 2023 at 3:47 pm
As a sex positive person, I find your argumentation just pure demagogy which could end causing more harm than good. It seems by what you argued above that sex positivity is some kind of uncontrollable urge that will stop sex positive employees from exhibiting a socially accepted behavior in the workplace. Also, the issue at hand has absolutely nothing to do with the professor’s sexual preferences or orientation, so let’s not deflect the irresponsibility of his acts by victimizing his sexuality. As it has been explained above, the professor, as a free human being, has a right to have a personal life where he expresses his sexuality in the form he may choose to do. But at work, he represents a brand; and by linking the brand’s name to his sexual activities, he is getting the brand involved in his personal preferences. In addition, the whole issue has opened Pandora’s box now. Are we going to normalize being flashed by the faculty’s genitalia, while at the same time, asking the student population to exercise caution when using social media? Hypocrisy at its finest.