Accountability or Cancel Culture? Columbus Teachers Demand Resignation Over Social Media Posts

Let’s tackle the subject of so-called “cancel culture” by taking a closer look at a recent controversy in Central Ohio. Columbus Board of Education Member James Ragland has been demanded to resign by the teachers union because of his questionable social media posts. Some teachers and citizens say his posts demonstrate he is unfit to serve and needs to be held accountable, while others call it an overreaction and an example of cancel culture. Let’s consider both sides.

The Facts: What Did Mr. Ragland Say?

On 3/8, Mr. Ragland posted twice on Facebook, saying “Happy Women’s Day! Govern Yourselves Accordingly.” The first post linked to a music video for Raheem DeVaughn’s 2008 song “Woman“, and the second linked the music video for Julie London’s 1967 song “Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast“. He later deleted the posts and apologized for them:

His posts were offensive to many women and showed poor judgement. Although this is a subjective judgement, we can accept it as undisputed since Ragland agreed to it himself.

Argument for Demanding His Resignation

Columbus Board of Education President Jennifer Adair said she was disappointed by his “questionable” posts. The Columbus Education Association called his posts “inappropriate and misogynistic” and “a fundamental disrespect for the core values of Columbus City Schools”, accusing Ragland of “disrespecting and dehumanizing” the female teachers and staff. In no uncertain terms, the CEA statement concludes that “Mr. Ragland has demonstrated he is unfit to serve. He must resign immediately.”

International Women’s Day is a 100 year old tradition to commemorate women’s contributions to society with honor and respect. Both of the songs Ragland posted were sexually suggestive, which undermines the purpose of the day reserved for remembering the achievements and leadership of women in society. One of the songs includes lyrics such as “how you a lady in the streets and a freak when it’s bedroom time” and “a sexy swagger with sex appeal”. Other stereotypical lyrics include “the way you play dumb” and “I think it’s so cute when you get so emotional.” The second song’s title implies that a women who sleeps with a man should leave before the morning.

When he said “Govern Yourselves Accordingly” with those particular songs, it implies that women should fit some expectation of sex appeal or sexual behavior, a message which is unprofessional and highly inappropriate for a school board member to post. We expect board members to exemplify appropriate conduct since they are in charge of the education of our girls and boys and work with both female and male teachers.

Argument for Accepting His Apology

Ragland made a mistake and apologized for it. How bad was the mistake and was it forgivable enough to let him finish his term? To answer that, it’s important to consider what he intended when he made the posts.

Intentions

What did he mean when he typed out “Happy Women’s Day! Govern Yourselves Accordingly”? Since he posted the same message twice, it suggests he had an idea in mind that wasn’t specific to either music video. If you consider only what he typed, the meaning really is ambiguous; govern ourselves according to what? It’s plausible that he was advising women to act like those accomplished women leaders that we revere on Women’s Day! While it may seem uncouth for a man to tell women how to behave, consider that Ragland is the father of a daughter and we don’t know who he had in mind when making that statement. But if that’s what he meant, why on earth would he post it alongside those particular music videos?

When people share a link on social media, whether it’s a meme, an article, or a music video, they aren’t necessarily endorsing 100% of what was shared, but maybe just some aspect of it. Songs are famous for meaning different things to different people, and for some it’s more about how the song makes them feel than the literal interpretation of the lyrics. That said, how is it possible to interpret those songs any other way?

Song Lyrics

The repeating chorus of “Woman” talks about a strong, grown, special, beautiful woman. It starts with the line “If you near a woman right now wherever you’re at just turn to ’em and say you are appreciated.” Other lyrics include “I appreciate your strength”, “She’s gotta be street smart and educated. Gotta good head on her shoulders” and “A grown woman who’s confident.” In many ways the song celebrates and extolls empowered women. Although some of the lyrics may seem belittling, in the context of DeVaughn singing about his own personal relationship with the specific woman he loves, the words can be seen as playfully endearing.

Julie London’s song has other interpretations besides the most misogynistic implication that a women should go away after sex. If “staying for breakfast” is innuendo for having sex at all, then it could be advising against promiscuity in general, advice that many fathers can relate to. It is plausible that Ragland had that in mind. In fact, he recently shared another post which commends both females and males for, among several things, the Christian moral of “not having babies out of wedlock”, which suggests he probably did intend it that way. Although some may not agree with that conservative ethic, it is far from the more misogynistic interpretation.

The lyrics of “Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast” clearly reveals a third meaning: that traditional expectations of how a “nice girl” should behave are superficial, hypocritical and outdated. She ends the song with more of a sex-positive message, singing “I’m a nice girl. Please pass the jam.” While I doubt that Ragland nor the CEA interpreted the song in this way, it’s important to demonstrate how shared content can have a variety of interpretations.

Misogynistic?

“Misogyny” is a very strong word, defined as “hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against women”. If we are to condemn a person in such strong terms, it’s important that we get it right. Can 6 ambiguous words with 2 shared songs on a man’s personal social media page correctly identify that he has hatred or prejudice toward women, as opposed to having a misunderstood message of girls growing up to be strong women? Furthermore, while discussions of women’s sexuality are rightly considered unprofessional and inappropriate for Women’s Day, do these particular references that he shared necessarily reach the level of “dehumanizing”? Although sex is a taboo topic in many contexts and cultures, it is still a very natural part of human life.

Clearly, his ambiguous message combined with the sexually suggestive lyrics and sexualized video implies some misogynistic and dehumanizing ideas which are offensive to women, and that makes his posts undisputedly inappropriate. He should have reviewed the songs and videos more carefully to determine that they were not befitting a post about Women’s Day. However, the understood meaning is not always the intended meaning, and it seems like that was the case here. In this apology, he says “I should have been more artful in my music selection” and “my attempt at shedding light on how I view women fell short of the mark.” Should we so harshly rebuke a man for what his posts mean to us if he plausibly intended something much more benign? Are we so sure that his posts reveal an unredeemable misogyny, or is there room for him to “work diligently to correct this error in judgement”?

Similar Controversy in Northwest Ohio (Added 3/22)

Last month, another school board member in Northwest Ohio had a very similar controversy, so let’s compare and contrast that with Ragland’s case. Margaretta School Board Member Andy Warner in Castalia, Ohio shared an offensive meme about Vice President Kamala Harris, with some calling for his resignation as well. The Sandusky Register reported on it without a screenshot of his post, so I will include the meme here so that readers can make their own judgement on it:

The statue of Jesus washing the feet of a man is photographed from an angle that makes it appear to be a women giving oral sex. Other incarnations of the meme are captioned “Imagine how good she was… if they erected a statue in her honor”. The Register said this meme “appeared to suggest Vice President Kamala Harris and female leaders are providers of oral sex.” It implies that our Vice President should primarily be thought of in sexual terms, or that she only achieved success via sexual acts, perpetuating the sexist stereotype that women leaders in general only get ahead through sex, and treats women as sexual objects by reducing their life’s work down to their sexuality. It denigrates VP Harris’ Doctor of Jurisprudence degree and her 30 year career as District Attorney and US Senator. It sends a message to girls everywhere that if they achieve success in life, their accomplishments will be disregarded in favor of a focus on their sexuality, a message we expect to not be coming from a member of a school board in charge of our children’s education.

Some may fairly raise questions of cronyism relating to appointments from Harris’ boyfriend 4 years into her career, but that’s no excuse for disregarding her decades of career accomplishments, based on a sexist double standard that plagues women in leadership roles while men with sexual indiscretions have long held positions of power. Out of 2 dozen responses to the Register’s Facebook post, at least 6 commenters defended the denigration of Harris’ accomplished career with comments like “she got where she is in her knees.” Some may argue it is a criticism of her and not other women, but the meme’s objectification of a woman on her knees as representative of a woman’s life is what makes it an insult toward women in general.

Warner told the Register, “It was brought to my intention that I offended some people. If I did, I apologize and it was not the intention of doing so,” and later said, “I have undoubtedly learned a great deal from the concerns brought to me from the board meeting. In the future, I will certainly be much more mindful of the contents shared on social media. Looking back on this it has reminded me that as an elected official, my post represents not just myself but the whole board. Going forward, I intend on representing them all in a positive manner.”

Although he says his intention was not to offend people, he does not dispute that his intention was to denigrate the career achievements of our first female Vice President. He admits that his post does not represent the board, but importantly does not dispute that what he posted does accurately represent his own views toward women.

Compared to what Ragland posted, Warner’s post is not only offensive, but also unambiguously sexist and dehumanizing, and his statement lacks any indication that his post was somehow misunderstood. It is more directly evidence of his own personal misogyny and more strongly supports calls for his resignation than in Ragland’s case.

Consistent Expectations

It’s important to have consistent standards of expectation for school professionals when they post on social media. Last year a Pickerington principal received a warning for posting political conspiracy theories online. But just a few months earlier, another principal received a much harsher punishment of losing her promotion for posting a photo of her daughter next to anti-police graffiti, even though she said “we did not write those words and we do not agree with those words”. This led to a protest about perceived hypocrisy and racial or political bias, and eventually the warning was upgraded to a 10 day suspension. Although that happened in a different school district regarding employees rather than elected officials, it’s still relevant to consider what we should generally expect as a society from the social media conduct of those in charge of our children’s education, to ensure we apply those expectations in a fair and consistent way.

Sometimes arguments against “cancel culture” are rooted in a divisive false dichotomy and sweeping generalizations, rather than judging each situation separately based on the facts. In reality, both politically left and right have lines they expect to not be crossed, although not always the same ones. Being rational requires that we avoid jumping to conclusions and instead judge situations on a case by case basis using a consistent set of standards. There is a time and place to hold people accountable for things like discrimination, abuse or other forms of poor leadership, but we also have to have some space for difference of opinion and forgiveness of mistakes.

Mr. Ragland is an elected official, so voters have every right to voice their opinions on whether or not he is properly serving and representing his constituents. I am all for holding elected leaders or candidates for office accountable for what they post on social media, as I have done many times on this website. Most of us can relate to posting something boneheaded online that doesn’t necessarily reflect who we are as a person, but at the same time we should expect people in positions of power to hold themselves to a higher standard and use a greater degree of discretion with what messages they put out, regardless of the platform. What officials say or post casually sometimes gives a rare glimpse into their true thoughts and feelings, and other times it’s just a miscommunicated blunder.

Should Ragland resign or not? Is an unintentionally offensive social media post considered sufficiently poor leadership to warrant immediate removal? I’ll leave that for you to decide. If you’ve at least slowed down to consider both sides, then my work here is done.

I’ve reached out to Board Member Ragland, Board President Adair, and the Columbus Board of Education for comment.

References

Local coverage of the story: CBS | ABC | NBC | Fox | Columbus Dispatch

Previous stories regarding Mr. Ragland:
Columbus teachers union pulls endorsement of board member James Ragland over school choice
Protesters gather outside of Columbus City Schools BOE member’s home
Ed Secretary Betsy DeVos In Suburban Columbus For Panel Discussion
2015 Interview: James Ragland, Candidate for Mayor