Janet Dudley Eshbach Facebook Scandal - Is This Really About Racism?

Filed in archive Latin Issues , Latin News on October 18, 2007

Janet Dudley-Eshbach, Salisbury University's president, is being accused of racism, due to two photos she uploaded to her profile on Facebook. One of the photos showed her brandishing a stick before a Mexican man, with a caption saying she had to "beat off the Mexicans because they were constantly flirting with my daughter."

Dudley-Eshbach said the two pictures on her Facebook profile were taken on a vacation to Mexico andCentral America with her daughter. C'mon, people. This 54 years old woman was obviously just joking. I think the idea was to joke about how hot her daughter is, and the "Latin lover" stereotype. She probably said "Mexicans" because she was in Mexico, not because she has a problem with Mexicans.

As far as I can tell, the other photo portrayed a male tapir, and had a comment about the animal's ample genitalia. I don't now what's racist about that, but this photo apparently was also included in the "Racist Facebook Profile Scandal".

The photos has been removed from her profile and she apologized. From The Washington Post:

"I very much apologize for any offense that anyone may have taken who saw these pictures," Dudley-Eshbach said. "I'm 54 years old, and here I thought I was trying to be up with the latest technology. I guess a little bit of knowledge could be a dangerous thing." (...)

"Dudley-Eshbach is a specialist in latin american studies who lists Pablo Neruda, Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges among her favorite authors on the school's Web site. President of the 7,500-student university since 2000, she said she has worked to make the school more diverse."

The woman specializes in Latin American studies. Do you really think she would have specialized in something like that if she had something against Mexicans?

Now people is asking if Dudley-Eshbach is going to face any disciplinary action. People should let her be, she didn't do any thing wrong. Yes, the joke was lame, but you can't penalize people because of that.

Globedish has a funny post about this: Janet Dudley Eshbach Facebook Scandal