An award-winning novelist who teaches at Michigan State University told his students that Republicans have "raped this country," according to the Washington Post.
Professor William Penn, who teaches in the creative writing program at the university, made the controversial remarks last week. One of Penn's students recorded his rant on video and uploaded it to Campus Reform, a website linked to the conservative Leadership Institute based in Virginia.
"If you go to the Republican convention in Florida, you see all of the old Republicans with the dead skin cells washing off them," Penn said. "They are cheap. They don't want to pay taxes because they have already raped this country and gotten everything out of it they possibly could."
Penn also alleged the Republican party is "full of closet racists" who try to keep black people from the voting booths.
"If you're a Republican, forgive me," he continued. "If your parents are Republicans, forgive me. They won't and I don't care."
After the video went viral online, university spokesman Kent Cassella said campus officials are reviewing Penn's comments.
"It is important the classroom environment is conducive to a free exchange of ideas and is respectful of the opinions of others," said Cassella.
Penn has not commented on the incident.
"This type of bullying is inexcusable," said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak, who thinks Penn should resign. Many comments on the Campus Reform post also call for his resignation.
"Send your child to a private Christian university or save your money. 'Scholars' like this are the spawn of free love, drugs, and rock n roll from the 1960s. He is just a sad product of his genes and his intolerant environment," one comment read.
"What a sick, ugly, dark human being on the inside, forget color outside. This College professor is right out of central casting. Leftism is the most powerful religion in the world. The college classroom is the seminary," said another angry commenter.
Penn is a two-time winner of the Stephen Crane Prize for Fiction and was a Distinguished Faculty Award recipient in 2003.
