A business professor at the University of Southern California became the center controversy,
after the school administration received a letter accusing him of using Chinese words that
sounded like an English racial slur.
Professor Greg Patton of USC'S Marshall School of Business was teaching a communications class
via Zoom call. An online video recording of the call shows Patton giving an example of how
Chinese speakers use filler words.
"In China, the common word is ’that'," he said in the video, before using the equivalent
Chinese term nei ge several times to demonstrate.
The following day, a complaint was filed to the school administration, saying the term sounded
like the N-word. "This phrase is always identified as a phonetic homonym and a racial derogatory
term," according to the letter, which accused Patton of negligence.
A week later, Marshall School Dean Geoffrey Garrett announced that a different professor would
take over teaching Patton's class.
The incident sparked widespread online controversy after making news headlines. Members of academia,
including those of Black and Chinese descent, blasted USC and voiced outrage on social media on
Patton's behalf.
Some pointed out that labeling nei ge or its pronunciation as offensive only makes sense within
an Anglophone bubble-that doing so portrays the Chinese language as subject to English rules
rather than independent and possessing its own contexts.
Weibo users echoed American criticisms that this may be an example of cultural sensitivity gone
wrong, with a few comments likening the incident to "literary inquisition," the historical Chinese
persecution of intellectuals for their writings.