Professor apologizes for Appalachian slur

Peter Gordon, an assistant professor at Columbia University, has apologized for comments he made in The New Yorker magazine.

Gordon used the term "Appalachian inbreeding" to defend the intelligence of a South American people he has been studying. Columbia was flooded with emails complaining about the remark and demanding an apology.

Apparently Gordon didn't see this paper from the University of Kentucky.

Is Columbia professor qualified to teach?

Peter Gordon, an assistant professor at Columbia University, interviewed by a writer for The New Yorker magazine used the term "Appalachian inbreeding" in a quote defending the intelligence of an Amazonian tribe.

The question now is this: Who is going to defend Gordon's intelligence? The quote was so stupid on so many different levels that it begs another question as well: Is Peter Gordon qualified to teach?

Columbia has a hell of a good reputation, but if it employs people of Gordon's caliber, that reputation might be in danger. Words cannot adequately express how colossally ignorant Gordon's statement was. And his non-apology ain't gonna cut it either. When called to account for what he said, Gordon stepped in the cow pie again.

Gordon told Lee Mueller of the Lexington Herald-Leader: "It was just a reference. I'm really sorry. I really was just talking about a tribe in Brazil." Since when does Appalachia have anything to do with South America? To make matters worse he said he would never intentionally offend Appalachians, noting that his wife lives in Northern Kentucky. Sounds an awful lot like the "some-of-my-best-friends-are-black" defense.

Don Imus just lost his job for using a racial and gender slur to describe the Rutger's women's basketball team, but it appears Gordon is going to get away with using an ethnic slur against Appalachians. Columbia's only response was that it doesn't censor its faculty.

Is Miss USA a hillbilly, a redneck or something else?

The Lexington Herald-Leader had an interesting article asking whether readers know the difference between a hillbilly and a redneck. Interesting, if for no other reason, because Lexington sits in the heart of the Bluegrass and I'm sure most of the people there are deeply offended by being called either. The debate came about because a plethora of bloggers, who don't know a certain part of their anatomy from a hole in the ground, decided that Miss USA is a hillbilly.

Obviously, they've never been to Russell Springs. There ain't a hill worthy of the appellation Appalachian within 75 miles of the place. For those of you who think everyone in Kentucky is a hillbilly, please look at a topo map. Kentucky is more than 400 miles from end to end, and comprises five distinct physiographic regions. Only one of those contains hills; therefore only one contains hillbillies.

Hint: We're in the eastern end, y'all.