The question of whether academics who are Conservative/Republican-aligned in their political beliefs need more affirmative-action-style support to increase their numbers esp. within some research fields has been a hot one on Twitter lately. 1/
I watched this interview with #PeterBoghossian yesterday. He’s not the most mainstream character in this discussion; but he is working on his publicity and he is an active supporter of various organizations that push this idea. 2/
https://twitter.com/Katja_Thieme/status/1380667475377811458?s=20
One point he made—I didn’t transcribe it—is that he thinks it’s hypocritical of the white president of his uni to make a statement against racism while not resigning his seat to hand it over to a BIPOC president. He also posted this recently. 3/
https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/1380572253532741634?s=20
Another point he made is that there are indeed “vestiges of racism” and that we should take them seriously. Race should be studied, he said. With real-world evidence only, not the--in his words--"make-belief land" evidence currently used. 4/
https://twitter.com/Katja_Thieme/status/1380707543505195009?s=20
You can hear the constant retreat in his points: What anti-racist researchers are showing isn’t “real” enough as evidence, evidence needs to be “realer” than that. While racism is real and serious sometimes, he says, most experiences of racism are not. 5/
When #PeterBoghossian sees the evidence, he promises he’ll be convinced. That he thinks it’s “vestigial” is not up to him to demonstrate; it’s others who need to prove him wrong. 6/
The president of his uni can want to declare commitment to anti-racism, but the only way that #PeterBoghossian will find that believable seems to be if he resigns and ensures a BIPOC president succeeds him. 7/
Rarely in this argumenative narrative does #PeterBoghossian put himself in a position where he is required to do anything other than doubt others and ask for more of them. Make him that sandwich, will you. Such is the convenience of lashing out while retreating. 8/
As belligerent as it sounds, I'll argue it is still a retreat. It is a retreat from the work of education. 9/
Here it is good to remind everyone that #PeterBoghossian’s training is not actually in philosophy but in education. 10/
As university educators we have to take students as they come to us and we have to accept them as the people they are. At traditionally white unis (i.e. nearly all of them in NA), the evidence that such acceptance is not on a par for BIPOC students is overwhelming. 11/
As educators, we are obligated to work on that deficit of acceptance that students experience daily. It makes sense to express this obligation at the highest level.
That is what anti-racist commitments from uni presidents are. They confirm what we should already be doing. 12/
That is what anti-racist commitments from uni presidents are. They confirm what we should already be doing. 12/
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