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Photo by Matthew Sherwood for National Post/File

It was an attempt at “jocular humour,” Marrus explained in a letter of apology to Segal — a very brave attempt, I will concede, if he intended to continue dining at Massey. But Marrus certainly shouldn’t be surprised by the reaction, as he’s no stranger to political correctness allegedly run amok.

“A female grad student in philosophy told me of a meeting she attended in which she opposed the principle of affirmative action,” he told the Toronto Star in his role on the U of T’s academic board, describing a frightening mood on campus. “She said she was intensely and bitterly attacked, made to feel like a Nazi in a synagogue.”

Marrus was speaking amidst a controversy over the hiring of anthropologist Jeanne Cannizzo at U of T, not long after she had curated an exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum that activists decried as racist. (The ROM has since apologized for mounting it.) The protesters followed Cannizzo to U of T Scarborough, and eventually shouted her off campus.

“Sooner or later we’ll have to discuss to what extent must one be black to teach black history,” Marrus warned the Star. “If so, it’s racial discrimination in reverse. It would be unconscionable for me to say a Chinese could not teach Shakespeare.”

That was in 1991. Some of his prophesy has come true. But, in 1991, in every year since and for many years previous, his little lunch joke would have been a spectacular conversation-stopper. He’s lucky he didn’t get a bowl of soup in his face. At his age, and since nobody seems to want him around anymore, calling it a day was probably the best move.