UVA isn’t *exceptionally* racist, in my experience. I’ve certainly engaged with more racist institutions. UVA *is* more racist than its modest prestige generally affords an institution. insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/2…
I looked at those CVs. They more than clear the bar for tenure, which their evaluations agreed with for years. But the framing of their denial turns on the institution’s belief that they are Harvard. Which they really think, by the way. It’s bizarre.
I attribute it to the geographic isolation of the school, the peculiar state higher ed structure that gives UVA more influence than it deserves, its very racist past and insecurity about being a public school.
The institution appears to have hired both scholars to merely be Black. And the institution is punishing them for the its own low expectations for them.
True story: the first time UVA tried to hire me, I asked them what they wanted for the position. The response was verbatim, “well...we don’t know. We have had...well we need someone Black.” When that’s where you start the hiring process? Tenure can only end the way it has here.
And I’m not picking on UVA because of my experience of them. This is also a professional interest. I have thought more about UVA’s peculiar institutional position than one normally would because I have had access to it.
Again, the racist Byzantine tenure process isn’t unique. But it is outsized for UVA’s status. Plainly, you can’t be as racist as Harvard when you aren’t Harvard.
These scholars would have no issues finding higher ranked institutions with better fit WERE WE NOT IN A PANDEMIC. For that reason alone, their appeals clock should be extended and the institution should do everything possible to retain them AND support their hire elsewhere
