A political science professor objected to claims made by South Carolina legislators that retired Library Dean Mark Herring was censured by the University.
Scott Huffmon made these remarks at Friday’s board of trustees meeting. Huffmon said that Herring had neither been censured—which means to be criticized officially—or censored. Huffmon’s speech follows Winthrop Provost Adrienne McCormick’s apology to Herring. However, because Herring was not named in McCormick’s initial email to the Winthrop community, Herring was not technically censured, Huffmon said.
“Herring was not named, nor was the publication named. Unless someone were already intimately familiar with the situation, there would have been no way to know that it was Mark Herring who was being referenced,” Huffmon said.
“In fact, until Mark Herring began publiclyproclaiming an alleged injurious grievance, I had absolutely no idea what her email was about. Therefore, Provost McCormick did not censure Mark Herring,” he said.
Herring’s article, titled “The Wuhan Wildings,” was considered offensive for the use of ethnically insensitive phrases such as referring to COVID-19 as the “kung flu.” The article appeared on the website Against the Grain but was quickly removed.
The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association and Chinese American Librarians Association released a joint statement condemning Herring’s article and Against The Grain for publishing it.
“The comments expressed in this article are deeply offensive and perpetuate harmful stereotypes of Chinese people as disease carriers who eat wild and unsanitary animals. This is especially dangerous since we do not know what officially started/caused the disease,” a May 15 press release stated.
The article was also removed from Winthrop’s Digital Commons, but according to Huffmon, it should have never been included in the digital commons to begin with.
“I don’t know how items are chosen to be put in the digital commons, nor do I know who established the ridiculously low bar that op-ed pieces should be admitted, but for the sake of Winthrop’s scholarly reputation, I urge that this criteria be revisited,” Huffmon said.
The removal of Herring’s article brought into question the censorship of conservative ideas by the university. Huffmon rejected this claim as well.
“Personally, I feel that the racism in the opinion piece has now been established. However, I am more disturbed by the claim that removing a racist piece from the digital commons somehow amounted to silencing a conservative voice. This, in my opinion, is patently absurd and, frankly, disgusting. Racism has no place in true conservative thought,” Huffmon said.
Huffmon called for an apology to McCormick “for the excoriation she received.”
