Medical school professor William Landau, longtime member of the American Civil Liberties Union, has been forced from the group’s board recently for his controversial use of the N-word.

Landau, a professor of neurology at the Washington University School of Medicine, had served on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Eastern Missouri (ACLUEM) board for about 50 years. But this summer, his influence diminished when he was ousted from the board and not nominated to serve another term.
The leave resulted from his usage of the N-word in three separate instances since 2005.

The first time he used the word, he was using it in an ironic sense and to make a poignant point, Landau said.

Landau was speaking to a friend and fellow ACLU member during the election season. One measure on the ballot then was to make English the official language of Missouri. Landau said he called it a “n—– law” for multiple reasons: to point out that the law was oppressive—like the Jim Crow laws—as well as to twist on the irony that many blacks were supporting the law.

“I was using this as an innocuous adjective,” Landau said. “It was a superlative adjective. I wasn’t using it in a trivial manner. It wouldn’t have been appropriate to call it a ‘mother-f—ing law,’ because that wasn’t the appropriate word.”

This was not the first time Landau used the N-word. In 2005, when speaking to Morris Taylor, an African American fellow in the ACLUEM, Landau said, “They’d better not mess with you, because you are our n—–.”

In this instance, Landau said he immediately realized his mistake.

“I apologized sincerely—he accepted the apology,” Landau said. “White people can’t use [that] term of fellowship that way.”

Later, as the ACLUEM continued its investigation of Landau’s actions, a video surfaced in which he used the word again. Landau was under contract with a historian documenting changes in civil liberties over the past century. Landau said during the interview, “Would you ever believe that we could have a woman, a mean woman and a n—– running for president.”

“I was reflecting on how rapidly history had moved,” Landau said.

He said he was using the word facetiously and with cognizance of the changes in American politics over the past 40 years.

Landau acknowledged that he should not have used the word but said he does not think it was worthy of his “resignation.”

“I thought this is an organization that understands the principles of due process and civil liberties in a general sense,” Landau said. “They are behaving like an evangelistic, far-right group. I’m just ashamed of them.”

Thomas Blumenthal, the president of ACLUEM, said he does not think this behavior was befitting of a sitting member of the board.

In a letter requesting the board’s vote on Landau’s termination, Blumenthal recommended that Landau, “be removed for cause resulting from his repeated use of language in his official capacity as a Member of the Board which is inappropriate and unbecoming of a Board Member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, and which places the organization in a negative light.”

When the resignation request was put to the board, nine members voted in support and five against, while three abstained.

Landau’s departure eventually led to the resignation of the ACLUEM’s general counsel and six other members of the legal committee.

Some longtime ACLU members feel that the board’s actions are hypocritical.

“The ACLU is a very good and important organization fighting for freedom of expression,” said Ray Hartmann, a former board member and president of the ACLUEM from 2005 until 2007. “I think it’s important for the ACLU to hold itself to a higher standard than other organizations when it comes to tolerance and freedom of expression, and I think it failed in this case.”

“I don’t like the use of the N-word in any context, and I don’t use it, but I do not believe he had any racist intent. In any case, I think we always talk at the ACLU about how it’s important to protect that speech, which is most unpleasant or detestable,” Hartmann said. “Pleasant speech doesn’t need anyone to protect it.”
But Denise Lieberman, lecturer in political science at the University and former member of the ACLUEM, said that whether the N-word was spoken with “racist intent” is not relevant.

“There’s no more charged word than the N-word in this society, and that alone warrants the utmost sensitivity by those who use it, because it comes loaded with lots of meanings that may not be what the speaker intended,” Lieberman said. “I don’t know that the speaker’s intent necessarily matters.”

1 Comments

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  On September 4, 2009 at 12:26 pm Nikki Doughty said

  It should be made clear that Dr. Landau was not ousted from the board, as it states. A vote was made but the motion failed to pass. Hence, Dr. Landau remained on the board until the end of his term. One should also understand that in our bylaws a board member can be removed if their actions threaten the stability of the organization. His comments were made in front of donors who were offended by his actions. We believe in Free Speech, I don’t care what this man says or what he does, but when he’s representing the ACLU as a leader he has a certain responsibility to the organization and its members and he has failed in that capacity.

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Tags: ACLU, ACLUEM, racial tensions, Thomas Blumenthal, William Landau

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