In education, there’s always a line that you don’t cross. Even non-educators know this. Recently, a Howard University professor went too far in their instruction about slavery. It should be noted that the professor that did said incident was white, however hosting a mock-slave auction in any capacity is wrong in my opinion. There are more effective ways to teach. I don’t think we need an interactive assignment over the horror’s of slavery. But I digress.

HBCU outlet The Caged Bird released an exclusive story about the incident, saying that the professor singled out two black male students and assessed them the way that a slave master would. He told one of the students that he’d be what a slave buyer would look for and even told one of them to turn around so he could survey his buttocks. He even gave one of the students a price for his sale, $400. According to the report, the students were humiliated. Odds are that they’ll never live this down. How is this beneficial? How is this contributing to the education of the scholars that were in that classroom?

The students in a class were juxtaposed to the professor’s actions. They jumped to their feet, displaying their sure displeasure. One student named Corey Jefferson said, “Personally I’m upset because I feel as though you can’t really have a mock slave auction at an HBCU, especially a professor of a different race. I feel a little bit disrespected by that because I feel like we are past that. That was years before this and now we are at a different age. It doesn’t feel right.”  Corey’s comments echo’s my sentiments. How, in any way, did this professor think this was right? I urge you to read the article from The Caged Bird. It details the horrid look on the face of the student and his peers. Maybe that was the intent of the professor. But, maybe he could’ve expressed it a certain way without traumatizing a student in the process.