C-LeB28
Moderator
I found this to be interesting. Please take your time to read...
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The invisible professors
The pattern of discrimination against White
and non-Black faculty at historically-Black public universities in the U.S.
By Lewis L. Laska,
llaska@verdictslaska.com
Professor of Business Law
College of Business
Tennessee State University
SUPPOSE seventy percent of traditionally White public universities in the United States had been found guilty of discriminating against Black or women faculty members, or of violating faculty contract rights or academic freedom, by a court of law since 1972. The discovery would be a national scandal.
Yet this fact holds true: Seventy percent of the Nation?s Black state-supported universities have been found guilty in court for violating rights of faculty, often White or non-Black faculty members and women. (For White public universities the figure is ten percent.)
The evidence is stunning:
? The Black dean of Texas Southern Law School was found liable for discriminating against three White male professors who received a $169,000 judgment. The dean was later elevated to the University?s presidency.
? Two White professors at Cheyney State University faced harassment after they complained about a Black department chair, who said that he ?would not go for a White one? when filling a teaching position. The jury smacked Cheyney with a $2 million verdict.
These are not isolated examples of mistreatment. My research shows a pattern of discrimination at public Black universities. Some schools, including the elite Howard University, have lost many cases.
I?m White. I?ve never sued the Black public university where I teach, Tennessee State University (TSU). On Black campuses, White professors are considered visitors or perhaps ?squatters?, but not full citizens. I?ve been such a ?squatter? at TSU since 1979 - no TSU president has ever asked my opinion about anything.
The curse of ?too many? White faculty
Conventional wisdom holds that public Black universities are benign institutions where non-Black minorities and Whites work for lower salaries as dedicated quasi-missionaries. In truth, these public historically-Black colleges and universities (PHBCUs) are reluctant to hire, to promote, or to tenure White and non-Black faculty. The reason is that a large constituency at PHBCUs feels threatened by the presence of ?too many? White faculty.
One of the strongest defenders of PHBCUs, former Texas Southern Law School Dean Kenneth S. Tollett, Black, has defended such actions against Whites and non-Blacks by invoking affirmative action. Under Tollett?s thinking, the primary legitimate non-discriminatory reason for ignoring the interests of Whites and non-Blacks is the fact the PHBCUs are ?affirmative action institutions or instruments?. (?Black Colleges as Instruments of Affirmative Action?, Occasional paper, No. 4, 1982, Institute for the Study of Educational Policy, Howard University.) In short, it is okay to discriminate against Whites and non-Blacks because unlike Blacks on White campuses, at PHBCUs Whites and non-Blacks should enjoy no ?protected status? under civil rights laws.
Tollett?s argument comes close to a 21st-century version of Dred Scott - at PHBCUs Whites and non-Blacks have ?no rights the university is bound to respect?.
Sadly, the situation is horribly close to that result. Where else but at a PHBCU would we find:
? A Black dean coming into class and publicly berating and humiliating a non-Black professor, ordering him to work problems on the board, change students? grades, and largely getting away with what the court called ?unprofessional, boorish? conduct? (Tennessee State University, 1980.)
? When a Black student called a White professor a ?condescending, patronizing racist?, in class, the University did nothing, refusing to move the student to another section. When the White professor refused to continue teaching the class, he was fired. The court reinstated him. (Howard University, 1987.)
?Benign? Apartheid in American higher education
PHBCUs are a legal anachronism because they are the only institutions left in America where racial-identifiability and preference is endorsed by federal law. PHBCUs enjoy federal money because they were established before 1964 and their ?principle mission was, and is, the education of Black Americans?. (20 U.S.C. 1061.)
Sadly, there is a direct line from ?benign? apartheid to outright discrimination. Two Black presidents asserted in court that it was proper to discriminate against qualified Whites because qualified Blacks had been victimized by White schools in the past and the presidents needed to preserve the ?heritage? of a Black faculty and staff. (Alabama State, 1978; Florida A&M, 1980.)
Management by Tribalism
The militant ethnocentric nature of PHBCUs mocks their self-serving rhetoric as universities that ?admit anyone? and ?never discriminated against anyone?. The slogans do not apply to White and non-Black faculty. Consider these racist incidents:
??White faculty who don?t like the way we do things here,? said the Black president of Elizabeth City State University, ?should find another Job.? When White professor Carol S. O?Dell complained publicly about the racist statement her contract was allowed to expire. (Elizabeth City State University, 1997; $50,000 plus reinstatement.)
? White professors who complain about promotions given to less qualified Blacks are simply fired. They win because the universities have no credible defense. This has happened at Jackson State University (1980). Similar cases have occurred at Southern University (1992) and Albany State University where there were two cases in 1990 and 1993.
? Florida A&M University (FAMU) is especially unfriendly to Whites and females, regardless of race. ?Watch out, you are a White boy in a Black man?s world and at this university Blacks are No. 1,? was the statement that caused a $300,000 verdict against the school (1997). Rhea Schwartz, White, was found to have been the victim of both race and gender discrimination in a leading case against FAMU (1980).
The anti-White bias of PHBCUs is a function of tribalism, namely the us-versus-them view so common in ethnic disputes, whether in Africa or the Balkans. It accounts for the autocratic and arbitrary power exercised by PHBCU presidents. The largely Black faculty, always feeling threatened by real or imaginary White forces, cedes power to the president, who becomes the living embodiment of the school. Any criticism of the president is deemed criticism of the school and its Black faculty. Two professors, one White and one Black, were ?let go? at Central State University because they had criticized the president --- they had committed ?seditious behavior?. (Academe, November-December 1986.)
Tribalism is at odds with the norm sought at White colleges, namely shared governance and collegiality. This academic tribalism places PHBCUs outside the mainstream of higher education and even hurts those who appear to be members of ?the tribe?. Each month, at least one of the 40 public Black universities is sued in federal court. If White colleges were sued at this rate, the number would be 283 suits per month, rather than the current rate of thirty.
Tribalism erodes academic freedom. Today?s political correctness means that skin pigmentation accredits and somehow ennobles Black professors at White schools. But lack of pigmentation disaccredits the voices of White professors at Black schools --- racism is the subtext of every word I say as a White male. To illustrate, several years ago TSU made the famous U.S. News list of ?best? schools, in part because our incoming freshmen had an average score of twenty on the ACT. It was a lie --- students who attained regular admission may have had a 20, but most TSU freshman are admitted on their GPA, not the ACT, and TSU has several routes to alternate admission.
I said nothing. I looked the other way. Reasoned criticism of public Black universities stopped with publication of ?The American Negro College? in 1967, and no White person I know has the stature of David Riesman, a co-author, who later backed off his criticism, nor do we want to stand in league with the other co-author, Christopher Jenks. It is just too hot in academic hell.
Gender discrimination at PHBCUs
Blacks victimizing Blacks is a taboo subject on PHBCU campuses. But the issue is well known to African-Americans. In Jim Crow days, comely coeds receiving the unwanted attention of male professors and administrators had nowhere to go --- they could not transfer to White schools. Today, these actions may lead to sexual harassment claims, but are usually settled out of court. (Florida A&M University, 1995.)
Some of these cases are shocking. The Black female Director of Campus Ministry alleged the Black president had attempted to rape her. He pled guilty to a lesser charge of ?harassing communications?. (Alabama State University, 1992.) At trial, the president?s lawyer tried to portray her as the ?aggressor?. The jury said no and awarded $80,000. A student at another PHBCU showed that a department head demanded sex for grades, and arranged to take nude pictures of her. (South Carolina State University, 1994.)
Holding a high post does not immunize Black females from sexual harassment. Female lawyers for both Alabama A&M (1992) and Morgan State University (1995) complained publicly about perceived and attempted sexual harassment, both winning some measure of relief.
Are Courts ?hostile? to public Black colleges?
A frequent lament of PHBCU apologists is that courts are ?hostile? to Black colleges and racism accounts for these verdicts. Careful scrutiny of cases shows the opposite. Today?s judges, especially federal judges, bend over backward to accredit the testimony of Black administrators. Judges do not want to appear racist. This is the face of racial guilt. By tolerating standards of behavior that are below that expected at White schools, the courts actually foster a downward spiral of ?dissing? faculty. An example will illustrate this phenomenon.
Judge Frank Johnson, White, was the most liberal federal judge in Alabama, known and respected for his strong stands in favor of Black civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s. In an early case he over-accredited the testimony of the Black president of Alabama State University, dismissing a suit brought by two White male professors who argued that the reasons for non-retention were pretextual. The president said the reason was to enhance the number of Ph.D. holders in the Department of History, when, in fact, there was no Department of History, rather a Department of History and Political Science, in which there were plenty of Ph.D. holders. Judge Johnson called the president?s actions ?altruistic?. (Fluker, 1971.)
Seven years later, Judge Johnson had changed his mind about the same president. ?Alabama State University, has since 1967, engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination against Whites,? he wrote. ?The evidence reflects that [president] Dr. Watkins runs ASU like an administrative tyrant. He utilizes his powers over the employees to maintain a nearly dictatorial grip over the internal life of the university. No doubt Blacks as well as Whites have fallen victim to Dr. Watkins? arbitrary actions. This, of course, does not detract from the Court?s finding of racial discrimination in this case.? (Craig, 1978.)
Each time a court rules ?to protect? a PHBCU from its own wrongdoing because the institution is ?fragile?, it worsens the culture of respect for the law at the university. In short, a pattern of allowing delinquency only fosters more delinquency. Professors of all races use the only weapon our culture allows to strike back at bad conduct, namely a lawsuit. PHBCUs lose more because they are sued more. They are sued more because they do not respect the law. Ironically, at any point in time, the typical PHBCU is facing more suits brought against it by African-Americans than by Whites.
Where are your friends, Professor?
The Nation?s 40 PHBCUs are insignificant to the whole picture of American higher education, which includes about 2,400 four-year colleges and universities. That accounts for lack of attention to the troubles White and non-Black faculty face at these schools.
But the problem is compounded by the posture of bodies like the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), which tends to ?look away? when faculty rights are trammeled at PHBCUs. For example, the AAUP backed off sanctioning Tennessee State University for the ?unprofessional and boorish? actions of the dean in the case mentioned above, in part, because he filed a lawsuit against the organization. Then it paid him $1,000 to ?settle? the case --- a tiny fraction of the legal fees it would have needed to spend to win the case. Besting the largely-White AAUP in this manner is another example of tribalism.
A former AAUP official, Lesley F. Zinn, admitted the group was ?chary? about getting involved in faculty suits against PHBCUs. Despite the fact that the famous AAUP list of censured administrations has contained a disproportionate percentage of PHBCUs, the group seeks to ?work from within? and not criticize PHBCUs in order to boost membership. Simply stated, the AAUP, like the courts, wears the face of racial guilt.
Conclusion
White and non-Black faculty are hardly the marginalized living-in-a-basement protagonist of Ralph Ellison?s powerful novel, Invisible Man. But they are not accorded full rights in public Black universities. Some may have high profiles, but most have been rendered ?invisible? because they are merely tolerated.
African-Americans in charge of PHBCUs treat Whites and non-Blacks poorly. They engage in patterns and practices of discrimination that discredit their own universities.
Lower standards of respect for law and human dignity at PHBCUs hurt everyone, including African-Americans. Women are the victims of the worst acts.
The courts and national organizations like the AAUP must discard their masks of racial guilt.
W.E.B. Dubois, Black intellectual and educator, said the problem of the 20th century was the problem of the color line. It is now the 21st century. The line persists at public historically Black colleges and universities. Why?
__________________________
The full version of ?Invisible Professors?, complete with footnotes, can be found at www.verdictslaska.com. The article is available for publication in a refereed journal.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The invisible professors
The pattern of discrimination against White
and non-Black faculty at historically-Black public universities in the U.S.
By Lewis L. Laska,
llaska@verdictslaska.com
Professor of Business Law
College of Business
Tennessee State University
SUPPOSE seventy percent of traditionally White public universities in the United States had been found guilty of discriminating against Black or women faculty members, or of violating faculty contract rights or academic freedom, by a court of law since 1972. The discovery would be a national scandal.
Yet this fact holds true: Seventy percent of the Nation?s Black state-supported universities have been found guilty in court for violating rights of faculty, often White or non-Black faculty members and women. (For White public universities the figure is ten percent.)
The evidence is stunning:
? The Black dean of Texas Southern Law School was found liable for discriminating against three White male professors who received a $169,000 judgment. The dean was later elevated to the University?s presidency.
? Two White professors at Cheyney State University faced harassment after they complained about a Black department chair, who said that he ?would not go for a White one? when filling a teaching position. The jury smacked Cheyney with a $2 million verdict.
These are not isolated examples of mistreatment. My research shows a pattern of discrimination at public Black universities. Some schools, including the elite Howard University, have lost many cases.
I?m White. I?ve never sued the Black public university where I teach, Tennessee State University (TSU). On Black campuses, White professors are considered visitors or perhaps ?squatters?, but not full citizens. I?ve been such a ?squatter? at TSU since 1979 - no TSU president has ever asked my opinion about anything.
The curse of ?too many? White faculty
Conventional wisdom holds that public Black universities are benign institutions where non-Black minorities and Whites work for lower salaries as dedicated quasi-missionaries. In truth, these public historically-Black colleges and universities (PHBCUs) are reluctant to hire, to promote, or to tenure White and non-Black faculty. The reason is that a large constituency at PHBCUs feels threatened by the presence of ?too many? White faculty.
One of the strongest defenders of PHBCUs, former Texas Southern Law School Dean Kenneth S. Tollett, Black, has defended such actions against Whites and non-Blacks by invoking affirmative action. Under Tollett?s thinking, the primary legitimate non-discriminatory reason for ignoring the interests of Whites and non-Blacks is the fact the PHBCUs are ?affirmative action institutions or instruments?. (?Black Colleges as Instruments of Affirmative Action?, Occasional paper, No. 4, 1982, Institute for the Study of Educational Policy, Howard University.) In short, it is okay to discriminate against Whites and non-Blacks because unlike Blacks on White campuses, at PHBCUs Whites and non-Blacks should enjoy no ?protected status? under civil rights laws.
Tollett?s argument comes close to a 21st-century version of Dred Scott - at PHBCUs Whites and non-Blacks have ?no rights the university is bound to respect?.
Sadly, the situation is horribly close to that result. Where else but at a PHBCU would we find:
? A Black dean coming into class and publicly berating and humiliating a non-Black professor, ordering him to work problems on the board, change students? grades, and largely getting away with what the court called ?unprofessional, boorish? conduct? (Tennessee State University, 1980.)
? When a Black student called a White professor a ?condescending, patronizing racist?, in class, the University did nothing, refusing to move the student to another section. When the White professor refused to continue teaching the class, he was fired. The court reinstated him. (Howard University, 1987.)
?Benign? Apartheid in American higher education
PHBCUs are a legal anachronism because they are the only institutions left in America where racial-identifiability and preference is endorsed by federal law. PHBCUs enjoy federal money because they were established before 1964 and their ?principle mission was, and is, the education of Black Americans?. (20 U.S.C. 1061.)
Sadly, there is a direct line from ?benign? apartheid to outright discrimination. Two Black presidents asserted in court that it was proper to discriminate against qualified Whites because qualified Blacks had been victimized by White schools in the past and the presidents needed to preserve the ?heritage? of a Black faculty and staff. (Alabama State, 1978; Florida A&M, 1980.)
Management by Tribalism
The militant ethnocentric nature of PHBCUs mocks their self-serving rhetoric as universities that ?admit anyone? and ?never discriminated against anyone?. The slogans do not apply to White and non-Black faculty. Consider these racist incidents:
??White faculty who don?t like the way we do things here,? said the Black president of Elizabeth City State University, ?should find another Job.? When White professor Carol S. O?Dell complained publicly about the racist statement her contract was allowed to expire. (Elizabeth City State University, 1997; $50,000 plus reinstatement.)
? White professors who complain about promotions given to less qualified Blacks are simply fired. They win because the universities have no credible defense. This has happened at Jackson State University (1980). Similar cases have occurred at Southern University (1992) and Albany State University where there were two cases in 1990 and 1993.
? Florida A&M University (FAMU) is especially unfriendly to Whites and females, regardless of race. ?Watch out, you are a White boy in a Black man?s world and at this university Blacks are No. 1,? was the statement that caused a $300,000 verdict against the school (1997). Rhea Schwartz, White, was found to have been the victim of both race and gender discrimination in a leading case against FAMU (1980).
The anti-White bias of PHBCUs is a function of tribalism, namely the us-versus-them view so common in ethnic disputes, whether in Africa or the Balkans. It accounts for the autocratic and arbitrary power exercised by PHBCU presidents. The largely Black faculty, always feeling threatened by real or imaginary White forces, cedes power to the president, who becomes the living embodiment of the school. Any criticism of the president is deemed criticism of the school and its Black faculty. Two professors, one White and one Black, were ?let go? at Central State University because they had criticized the president --- they had committed ?seditious behavior?. (Academe, November-December 1986.)
Tribalism is at odds with the norm sought at White colleges, namely shared governance and collegiality. This academic tribalism places PHBCUs outside the mainstream of higher education and even hurts those who appear to be members of ?the tribe?. Each month, at least one of the 40 public Black universities is sued in federal court. If White colleges were sued at this rate, the number would be 283 suits per month, rather than the current rate of thirty.
Tribalism erodes academic freedom. Today?s political correctness means that skin pigmentation accredits and somehow ennobles Black professors at White schools. But lack of pigmentation disaccredits the voices of White professors at Black schools --- racism is the subtext of every word I say as a White male. To illustrate, several years ago TSU made the famous U.S. News list of ?best? schools, in part because our incoming freshmen had an average score of twenty on the ACT. It was a lie --- students who attained regular admission may have had a 20, but most TSU freshman are admitted on their GPA, not the ACT, and TSU has several routes to alternate admission.
I said nothing. I looked the other way. Reasoned criticism of public Black universities stopped with publication of ?The American Negro College? in 1967, and no White person I know has the stature of David Riesman, a co-author, who later backed off his criticism, nor do we want to stand in league with the other co-author, Christopher Jenks. It is just too hot in academic hell.
Gender discrimination at PHBCUs
Blacks victimizing Blacks is a taboo subject on PHBCU campuses. But the issue is well known to African-Americans. In Jim Crow days, comely coeds receiving the unwanted attention of male professors and administrators had nowhere to go --- they could not transfer to White schools. Today, these actions may lead to sexual harassment claims, but are usually settled out of court. (Florida A&M University, 1995.)
Some of these cases are shocking. The Black female Director of Campus Ministry alleged the Black president had attempted to rape her. He pled guilty to a lesser charge of ?harassing communications?. (Alabama State University, 1992.) At trial, the president?s lawyer tried to portray her as the ?aggressor?. The jury said no and awarded $80,000. A student at another PHBCU showed that a department head demanded sex for grades, and arranged to take nude pictures of her. (South Carolina State University, 1994.)
Holding a high post does not immunize Black females from sexual harassment. Female lawyers for both Alabama A&M (1992) and Morgan State University (1995) complained publicly about perceived and attempted sexual harassment, both winning some measure of relief.
Are Courts ?hostile? to public Black colleges?
A frequent lament of PHBCU apologists is that courts are ?hostile? to Black colleges and racism accounts for these verdicts. Careful scrutiny of cases shows the opposite. Today?s judges, especially federal judges, bend over backward to accredit the testimony of Black administrators. Judges do not want to appear racist. This is the face of racial guilt. By tolerating standards of behavior that are below that expected at White schools, the courts actually foster a downward spiral of ?dissing? faculty. An example will illustrate this phenomenon.
Judge Frank Johnson, White, was the most liberal federal judge in Alabama, known and respected for his strong stands in favor of Black civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s. In an early case he over-accredited the testimony of the Black president of Alabama State University, dismissing a suit brought by two White male professors who argued that the reasons for non-retention were pretextual. The president said the reason was to enhance the number of Ph.D. holders in the Department of History, when, in fact, there was no Department of History, rather a Department of History and Political Science, in which there were plenty of Ph.D. holders. Judge Johnson called the president?s actions ?altruistic?. (Fluker, 1971.)
Seven years later, Judge Johnson had changed his mind about the same president. ?Alabama State University, has since 1967, engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination against Whites,? he wrote. ?The evidence reflects that [president] Dr. Watkins runs ASU like an administrative tyrant. He utilizes his powers over the employees to maintain a nearly dictatorial grip over the internal life of the university. No doubt Blacks as well as Whites have fallen victim to Dr. Watkins? arbitrary actions. This, of course, does not detract from the Court?s finding of racial discrimination in this case.? (Craig, 1978.)
Each time a court rules ?to protect? a PHBCU from its own wrongdoing because the institution is ?fragile?, it worsens the culture of respect for the law at the university. In short, a pattern of allowing delinquency only fosters more delinquency. Professors of all races use the only weapon our culture allows to strike back at bad conduct, namely a lawsuit. PHBCUs lose more because they are sued more. They are sued more because they do not respect the law. Ironically, at any point in time, the typical PHBCU is facing more suits brought against it by African-Americans than by Whites.
Where are your friends, Professor?
The Nation?s 40 PHBCUs are insignificant to the whole picture of American higher education, which includes about 2,400 four-year colleges and universities. That accounts for lack of attention to the troubles White and non-Black faculty face at these schools.
But the problem is compounded by the posture of bodies like the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), which tends to ?look away? when faculty rights are trammeled at PHBCUs. For example, the AAUP backed off sanctioning Tennessee State University for the ?unprofessional and boorish? actions of the dean in the case mentioned above, in part, because he filed a lawsuit against the organization. Then it paid him $1,000 to ?settle? the case --- a tiny fraction of the legal fees it would have needed to spend to win the case. Besting the largely-White AAUP in this manner is another example of tribalism.
A former AAUP official, Lesley F. Zinn, admitted the group was ?chary? about getting involved in faculty suits against PHBCUs. Despite the fact that the famous AAUP list of censured administrations has contained a disproportionate percentage of PHBCUs, the group seeks to ?work from within? and not criticize PHBCUs in order to boost membership. Simply stated, the AAUP, like the courts, wears the face of racial guilt.
Conclusion
White and non-Black faculty are hardly the marginalized living-in-a-basement protagonist of Ralph Ellison?s powerful novel, Invisible Man. But they are not accorded full rights in public Black universities. Some may have high profiles, but most have been rendered ?invisible? because they are merely tolerated.
African-Americans in charge of PHBCUs treat Whites and non-Blacks poorly. They engage in patterns and practices of discrimination that discredit their own universities.
Lower standards of respect for law and human dignity at PHBCUs hurt everyone, including African-Americans. Women are the victims of the worst acts.
The courts and national organizations like the AAUP must discard their masks of racial guilt.
W.E.B. Dubois, Black intellectual and educator, said the problem of the 20th century was the problem of the color line. It is now the 21st century. The line persists at public historically Black colleges and universities. Why?
__________________________
The full version of ?Invisible Professors?, complete with footnotes, can be found at www.verdictslaska.com. The article is available for publication in a refereed journal.
The more I think of that article that madder I get. 
