I also thought it might have been trolling, but this article makes that seem unlikely: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-05/usc-business-professo

I also thought it might have been trolling, but this article makes that seem unlikely: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-05/usc-business-professor-controversy-chinese-word-english-slur https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-05/usc-busi... To some students, the word sounded like the N-word in English. The next day a group of Black master’s candidates in the class of 2022 wrote a letter to Marshall Dean Geoffrey Garrett. “There are over 10,000 characters in the Chinese written language and to use this phrase ... is hurtful and unacceptable to our USC Marshall community,” the letter said. “The negligence and disregard displayed by our professor was very clear.”