Up until last week, Dr. Paul Roof taught sociology at Charleston Southern University, which has an affiliation with the S.C. Baptist Convention and actively discourages drinking among the student body. So you can imagine that administrators weren’t happy to learn that a stylized version of a photo depicting Roof and his abundant facial hair found its way onto the cans of Follicle Brown Ale, produced by the local Holy City Brewing Company. It apparently doesn’t matter that Dr. Roof wasn’t compensated for the usage and that he had no prior knowledge that that the photo, taken in 2013 at a facial hair-athon of sorts that raises money for cancer charities, would be used on a beer can; he was fired on Friday anyhow.
The university isn’t commenting on the matter, and while Dr. Roof may be out of a job, at the very least he has a commemorative six-pack, and a post-canning Facebook post has led to an additional outpouring of donations to the cancer charity. Plus, he apparently still has a sense of humor: “I will give Charleston Southern credit,” he tells the local CBS affiliate. “They never discriminated against me in terms of having a beard.”
Picture this: Charleston professor says he was fired after picture appeared on beer can [WCSC CBS]
