Rejecting Wokeness: Professor Disciplined For Using Wrong Pronouns Fights Back, Wins Big

We can bow to the woke mob and surrender our culture to their insanity, or we can take a stand and push back. One professor at a university in Ohio has provided a blueprint on how to hit them where it hurts: In their bank accounts.

As reported by Fox News, in June 2018 a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University named Nick Meriwether was formally disciplined by the university for his refusal to use a student’s preferred pronouns. A written warning was placed in Meriwether’s permanent file with a promise to apply “further corrective actions” if similar incidents occurred in the future.

But Meriwether didn’t just cave to the pressure, he fought. He sued the university, took them to court, and won in the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit in March. Meriwether’s legal team has now come to a settlement agreement with the school, which has agreed to pay Meriwether $400,000 in legal fees and damages.

Meriwether’s triumph is being viewed as a significant victory for free speech, and a gut-punch to wokeness and cancel culture.

The incident that propelled the controversy occurred in January of 2018 when Meriwether addressed a male student saying, “Yes, sir.” The student, who identifies as female, confronted the professor, and asked to be addressed by “feminine titles and pronouns.” Meriwether refused, citing his Christian beliefs. The student then “became belligerent and told the professor he would be fired.”

Perhaps the only disappointing aspect of this situation is that Dr. Meriwether had to use his faith as the premise for taking his stand. Ultimately, we should be pleased with the outcome and should be happy to take victories whenever and wherever we can win them. But in a sane society, one would only need to use reality and science as justification. In the meantime, we’ll have to wait for sanity to return.

The most important message from this episode is to stay strong. When the student asserted that Meriwether would lose his job, there’s no doubt that the student was confident that such action would be taken, and justifiably so. The university was clearly headed down that path, and the implication of their written warning was that it was only a matter of time before the professor was sent packing if he didn’t conform. Such is the state of affairs in which we find ourselves.

While many others in his situation would have kowtowed and issued an apology, Meriwether didn’t. Kudos to Nick Meriwether, this is how it’s done. Regardless of what industry we’re in, academia or otherwise, we need to follow his example. There’s no need to humiliate or embarrass anyone, but we also shouldn’t play along with the insanity.

Content syndicated from TheBlueStateConservative.com with permission.