In 2007, Brandeis University tried to discipline a professor for explaining the pejorative term "wetback". This led to a dispute between the faculty senate, which defended him, and the administration which judged that this was "harassment".

Hindley did not really make a racial slur, but what if he had? In general, real use of racial slurs should not be formally punished. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to say nasty and foolish things.

Teachers are a special case, though; they should not gratuitously insult their students and should not set an example of racism.

The faculty-administration dispute was resolved as the administration agreed to give somewhat more respect to faculty decisions, but Brandeis never rescinded its unjust decision against Hindley.

In 2014, people attacked him for describing the Israeli occupation of Palestine as "ethnic cleansing" and comparing it to the holocaust.

The occupation does include slow ethnic cleansing on certain parts of annexed Jerusalem and the West Bank, but comparing it to the holocaust is an exaggeration. Israel does not do things that would ever kill millions of Arabs. Nonetheless, he has a right to say such things on the faculty mailing list.