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Several years back, WSU invited a prominent Black scholar to campus to give a talk. Frustrated by the ways such talks did little to empower students nor address campus climate, myself & another faculty member decided to organize a reading group (1/11)
For several weeks, we met with over 60 students, discussing the book in prep of visit. We did this w/out compensation; it was a great experience, a reminder of possibilities transformative education, a dynamic class environment, & what a learning community looked like (2/11)
Once the week came when the scholar was going to be on campus, the university wanted 2 spotlight the class. Rather than celebrate the students, they celebrated WSU. They used the class as evidence of THEIR investment in social justice, diversity, & transformative learning (3/11
Never mind, they didn't do anything to make it happen, which was nothing new. It was emblematic of brochure diversity: creating the illusion through marketing without actually doing work, resources, and support, much less enacting anti-racism (4/11)
When this scholar was on campus, the university also hosted a dinner 4 him along with others on campus. Neither I nor my colleague were invited (I dont think most of the students got invites). It was yet another reminder that our labor were useful but our presence was not (5/11)
It was a reminder of how universities want to perform anti-racism; perform diversity; perform equity and justice work without resources, without being challenged; without demands of accountability and systemic change. (6/11)
I was reminded of this experience when recently a few of us received an email that the university wanted to highlight faculty work addressing 'racial inequities' given recent events. They wanted to claim our work. Our work mattered now because it would be good for PR (7/11)
Never mind, the lack of investment in the work; never mind the lack of support; never mind the lack of resources or interest in our work before. The work we have been doing for years was now 'What the university was doing.' PLEASE. Interesting when there is "We" and "US" (8/11)
This is how universities view diversity and equity work; co-optation; appropriation of labor without investment; celebration in brochures and press releases all while doing little to address campus climate, the experiences of faculty and students of color, w/out resources (9/ 11)
While I have had moments like this throughout my time at WSU, I also recognize that my whiteness here. The disrespect; the uncompensated labor; the celebration without investment; the use in brochure diversity is commonplace for Black faculty and other faculty of color (10/11)
Too often the labor; the intellectual and scholarly work; the mentoring; and the many types of service of faculty of color get used as evidence of the university's race and equity mission even as that work is not supported and is demonized (11/11)
