On the surface I understand what you are saying. But this is kind of the intersection of 2 issues that ultimately creating the cancel culture as we see it.
issue 1: We cant teach or speak on historical documents, stories or ideas that may contain unfortunate language or depiction of past transgressions as truly "historical" and be able to separate them from the teacher, lecturer or general conversation. The thought process now is that "if you mention it, you automatically believe it" and there is no way to teach history or provide insight into past ideas without talking about it.
issue 2. Some people do not have the ability to process their feelings and separate what is meant to be educational or justified vs a perceived personal attack on them. In the article the one student in question had to "abruptly" leave the call because of an "inappropriate slur." Really? You were so shook by what would be considered common place in movies and in music that you could not continue with listening to a lecture? So either you have someone who is incapable of dealing with everyday life or (and even worse) was
looking for that "gotcha moment" where they can gain "clout" by basically bullying someone who is supposed to be their superior (the professor) and gain some form of personal enjoyment out of ruining someone else's career.
Now to be a bit hypocritical, I did bow to the potential treat of CC. I'm an adjunct professor, teaching graphic design. In one of my lessons about "visual storytelling" I did have a slide about how an "image can tell a story without any words". To illustrate it, I used he example of the same OJ Simpson mug shot on the cover of
2 different magazines where one was photoshopped darker to make him appear more black and in turn more guilty. While it is a solid representation of the topic, I pulled it b/c I fear potential backlash from a student who would prefer to run to administration rather than have a conversation with me.