BELLEVUE – A Bellevue Community College math instructor has publicly apologized for a racially insensitive test question involving Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and trustees are initiating disciplinary action.
The question was an “egregious mistake,” said Peter Ratener, 60, a faculty veteran of more than 25 years, at an emotional trustees meeting Wednesday night.
“Though I never intended insult, I am judged for what I should have known. Educators are held to a higher standard,” Ratener said.
A number of Seattle-area black community leaders demanded Ratener be fired or disciplined.
“Apologies have been made, but where is the atonement?” said James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.
After a closed session that followed the meeting, college President Jean Floten said action would be initiated under a clause in the faculty contract that covers punishment, including reprimand or suspension, but not termination.
The issue arose after students complained about a question on a math test in March that began, “Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300-foot Federal Building, and tosses it up with a velocity of 20 feet per second,” then asked students to use a formula to determine when the watermelon would hit the ground.
The Board of Trustees condemned the wording as insulting to the U.S. secretary of state, who is black, because of caricatures of blacks eating watermelon during the days of plantation slavery.
Ratener, who had not previously come forward, explained that the question originally referred to Gallagher, a one-named comedian who smashed watermelons as part of his act, and that he changed it to Condoleezza because she was more recognizable and because he likes the name.
“Political beliefs or ideology wasn’t part of this,” he added. “I have the utmost respect for the unbelievable accomplishments of Dr. Rice.”
He said he wanted to respond earlier but was concerned for his family’s safety because of “an avalanche of angry and hysterical e-mails” and telephone calls to the two-year school. After the meeting, Ratener called his wife to ask her and their two children to leave home for someplace safer.
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