BY LORI LATRICE MARTIN, BIKO MANDELA GRAY, AND STEPHEN C. FINLEY
“Was it really necessary to copy all those folks on that last email, or do you only feel the need to do so when the recipient is a black professor, or a black student, or when the subject matter is pertaining to a unit, like Africana Studies?”
“Is the urge to shame and/or scold black people so strong that you cannot wait to hit send and relay not only the manifest message—what you are actually saying—but also the latent message—what you really mean; that the recipient has now been put back into their proverbial place?”
These are not what polite scholars might refer to as mere microaggressions. They are far more than just every day annoyances that black faculty and black students face at predominately white institutions (PWIs). They are examples of bullying, pure and simple.
The biggest bullies are not on the playgrounds; the biggest bullies are in the academy.
Bullying in the academy comes from a variety of sources, takes many forms, and has both material and non-material consequences. Bullying results in stress and strain inflicted upon the some of the most vulnerable. At PWIs, the most vulnerable and endangered groups are black faculty and students.
Instead of taking lunch-money, programs like African American Studies are given shoestring budgets and chastised for doing as well as more adequately funded units. Then, too, their research on matters of race is regarded as meaningless or not very meaningful.
“But we ‘need’ you here; we value all faculty.” We suppose you do . . .
These same endangered and vulnerable black bodies are paraded around campus in athletic uniforms and suits for donor dollars, revenue from corporate sponsorships and multimedia deals, and evidence of inclusiveness.
In recent years, we have seen a host of high-profile cases in which black professors—those tasked to teach about race—have found themselves on the wrong side of antiblack sentiment in social media. By now, the story should be familiar: professor of race or gender (insert any, because the names don’t matter) tweets or posts something criticizing whiteness or white people; social media goes into an uproar; a “public statement” is produced by the university where said professor works; and said professor is disparaged.
But what remains off-putting (if not downright surprising), is how such racial discrimination remains (mis)handled under the banner of “diversity and inclusion.” Despite the newly minted “Chief Diversity Officers” popping up in universities across the country, demographic analysis shows a steady decline of faculty and students of color at flagship institutions. This decline is significant; while the numbers are dropping, faculty and students of color are nevertheless being highlighted on advertisements and university brochures. These promotional materials falsely perpetuate an experience of diversity where there is none. The spin is just that—spin.
But, while we find ourselves plastered on brochures and trotted out to recruitment events, faculty and students of color—again, particularly black faculty and students—recognize the inherent objectification in said actions. If “diversity and inclusion” name attempts at a kind of institutional equity, then what actually happens is far less equitable. While we may smile (or get caught smiling) on promotional materials, what we know—what we’ve always known—is that our situations are not as pleasant. In fact, these situations are nothing less than that of bullying.
As we say in our Journal of Academic Freedom article, “Endangered and Vulnerable,” black faculty face a kind of bullying that places them under heightened scrutiny in and beyond their departmental and teaching responsibilities. This heightened scrutiny lends itself to what we might call a warped “body schema”: knowing that the university is watching, we speak differently, placing our heads on swivel.
We don’t speak up for fear of retaliation—or worse, threats to our livelihood.
We are told that our areas of study aren’t legitimate modes of knowledge production.
And we are tasked with providing solace to students of color who almost immediately perceive and feel the weight of their own embodiment.
And yet, we continue to work under these conditions, struggling to articulate the importance of both our knowledge and our position.
And when the yearly budget comes out, we see that, yet again, the “ethnic” studies program has been dealt yet another blow. So much for diversity.
But our pictures are on university walls and websites! We’re still on that pamphlet! And that department flyer, too.
Bullying takes many forms.
Lori Latrice Martin, Louisiana State University is professor of African and African American Studies and Sociology at
Louisiana State University. Biko Mandela Gray, Syracuse University is assistant professor of American Religion at Syracuse University. Stephen C. Finley, is director of African and African American Studies and associate professor of religious studies at Louisiana State University.
Read the complete volume of the 2019 Journal of Academic Freedom at https://www.aaup.org/JAF10.
I’m sorry but before giving my reactions I feel compelled to mention my “credentials” to speak on this matter:
My name is proudly engraved on Rosa Parks’ “Wall of Tolerance” in Montgomery, Alabama; making educational health videos for the nursing program at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn; serving on the Development Committee at Bronx Community College; working for the Dept. of Social Services in Bedford-Stuyvesant for 5-6 years; writing essays on black issues as they related to media; and assisting/advising numerous students and colleagues (who came from “the hood”) on how to obtain prestigious fellowships, graduate admission, and/or succeed in academe or in media professions. Many of those minority students have succeeded and attribute their success to me. Back in the day, I even assisted the original Black Panthers in New York City.
That said, I make a practice of copying messages to all those who I feel might be interested or involved in the issue addressed. Sometimes people question whether they should have been on my list and, admittedly, maybe I send out too many copies, thinking that more people are affected by that subject than those who actually are.
However, these are NOT generally a matter of race; more often than not, they are informational messages about academic matters — admissions, grading, etc.
I believe that the present “P.C.” culture has gone to such extremes that everyone is over-sensitive to and on the lookout for so-called “MICRO-aggressions.” (And remember that “micro-” means small.)
Admittedly, this essay does not spell out many specifics about the emails that are circulated to black professors but without that specificity it is hard to tell whether the authors’ use of exaggerated rhetorical terms is accurate or not. For instance, words like “shame,” “scold,” more than “mere microaggressions,” “putting [us] back in place,” and “bullying” — as well as suggesting that colleagues are sending out “dog whistle” animus — suggest to me the over-reaction to mere information that has pervaded and distorted the academic mission at so many universities and set the races against each other when no CONSCIOUS harm was intended. As Rodney King famously said, “Can’t we all just get along?”
I’ve even heard that (black and white) criminology professors are labeled “racists” if they cite crime statistics that show a preponderance of crime being committed by minorities — even if the sociological and historical determinants of that data are explained. Instead of leaping to rage as the first recourse, why not “try a little tenderness” and EDUCATE your brothers and sisters about their (probably un-“woke”) messages and (maybe) unconscious prejudices. As my momma used to say, “You get more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
Thanks for this follow-up on your article. You’re especially right to say that often we don’t speak up for fear of retaliation. One of my students asked whether I will get “in trouble” for my article, and I said that my past comments have already landed me on the Professor Watchlist. Obviously our ability to help our most vulnerable students is compromised by this fear of retaliation. But still we help anyway–our students being more important to us than clueless white administrators. And I’ve noticed that most of our students of color do understand. They get it. And that’s one big reason for our continuing, isn’t it?
And how do we determine “our most vulnerable students”? By their epidermal pigmentation? Their genitalia? Their wheelchairs?
I wish it were that simple!
Professor Tomasulo: By way of friendly advice, you should read the long introduction by Markus and Moya to their collection Doing Race, in which whites are warned NOT to advertise their “credentials” of past activism. That doesn’t impress people of color. Also your objections merely serve to prove the authors’ point. Just as men commit “mansplaining,” we people of color are always having to hear whites commit “whitesplaining.” In his great No Name in the Street, James Baldwin wrote that, “ultimately, all attempts at dialogue between the subdued and subduer, between those placed within history and those dispersed outside, break down. One may say, indeed, that until this hour such a dialogue has scarcely been attempted: the subdued and the subduer do not speak the same language.” You deny people of color our right to self-identification by challenging us to prove that our identities aren’t dependent on frivolous criteria. You fail to understand that microaggressions are ambient and constant, not occasional. And you seem to miss the point that “political correctness” is a fabrication of hostile whites. If you enrolled in a 100-level ethnic studies course, you would see how vast is the distance you place between yourself and us. Or, as Baldwin would say, you do not speak our language. .
Thanks for the free advice. Unfortunately, black people SHOULD respect people of ANY color who helped the cause. To me, “mansplaining” and “whitespaining” are sexist and racial condescension, but authentic EX-PLAINING is an important aspect of communication, especially in tense racial situations.
Although I admire Baldwin’s fiction and most of his quotes, the one you cite — about the impossibility of communication between “oppressor and oppressed” — has historically caused more harm to the oppressed than good — and more harm to the oppressed than to the oppressors. This is especially true in today’s climate, in which longtime supporters of black activism are labeled “insensitive” and “racists” over misunderstandings. And the vast majority of whites, rightly or wrongly, do not believe that they have any racial animus or possess white privilege and they end up voting for Trumps.
In contrast to what you say, I have been able to “speak the same language with people” of other races, albeit on a small scale (one-on-one or in classrooms). Such efforts and tactics can be expanded to larger populations but it would take r-e-s-p-e-c-t from ALL parties. And that includes giving “MICRO-aggressions” their proper context and weight. Educate the insensitive and discuss the implications of unconscious but harmful remarks.
Re.: ““political correctness” is a fabrication of hostile whites.” As I understand it, “P.C.” was a self-deprecating in-joke satire among Vietnam War protesters (like me) who even joked about what the “politically correct” car was or whether “meat is murder.” I think that both blacks and whites, males and females, used the expression in that way back in the day. However, in recent years, when pseudo-SJWs take this once humorous tactic to EXTREMES, the right-wingers can use the absurdity of some ideas to legitimately criticize the poseurs who play such word games. (I say pseudo-SJWs because few that I know of have done anything concrete for the oppressed except make semantic attacks on their allies in the struggle).
I have read dozens of books on ethnic studies and have written and lectured about the Rodney King case, THE COLOR PURPLE, the BLACK GIRL and BOROM SARRET, several Spike Lee movies (including a relationship with his film prof from Atlanta) and … here I go again: strutting out my :credentials.” I have also sponsored and attended several racial sensitivity sessions; most were valuable, esp. for those whites who knew nothing about Black History. However, one of those sessions entailed a black man yelling and excoriating whites on an individual and collective basis and, in that case, the races did not speak the same language. In fact, almost all the whites were turned off by that abusive behavior — unlike the receptive response given when attempts were made to find common ground.
Incidentally, my break with the NY Black Panthers came (1) when they decided to turn down white assistance, after the famous “Radical Chic” party at Lennie Bernstein’s house and (2) when they abjured my advice to avoid calling police “pigs.” My reasoning was that most successful revolutions managed to get the police and military as allies (after all, they are workers too); shortly thereafter, several Panthers were shot dead by cops — under suspicious circumstances (i.e., Fred Hampton and Mark Clark).
Hampton famously said the following:
“When I talk about the masses, I’m talking about the white masses, I’m talking about the black masses, and the brown masses, and the yellow masses, too.”
“We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity.”