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Black grad students @Stanford offer a powerful analysis of the university's response to #BLM concerns and its weird reluctance to departmentalize African and African American Studies.
Some highlights... 1/ https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/07/06/letter-to-the-president-and-provost-the-inadequacy-of-the-impacts-of-race-in-america/
Some highlights... 1/ https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/07/06/letter-to-the-president-and-provost-the-inadequacy-of-the-impacts-of-race-in-america/
Faculty & students have been demanding more support for Black studies for 50 years. Over 5000 signatures on the recent petition demanding departmentalization. 2/ https://www.change.org/p/after-50-years-it-is-time-for-aaas-at-stanford-to-become-a-department?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=cd9f2f10-cf59-11e7-846e-2955359b1e93
"At no time did the administration reach out to us or AAAS faculty for collaboration....[Top administrators] rejected the idea that the University should hire professors who have been trained in Black Studies as “too narrow.” 3/
"Black Graduate Students Association rejects Stanford’s attempt to de-center Blackness from the conversation about race...Stnfrd has refused to commit to real solutions suggested by its Black students. Instead, [it] announced vague reforms..on the “Impacts of Race in America.” 4/
"Univ to conduct a “study” to determine whether or not needs of AAAS would be better served by departmentalization. This would be led by...the very same people who've refused to support countless proposals for a cluster hire in AAAS & the departmentalization of the program." 5/
"We take issue with this vague & non-specific call [re-Impacts of Race in Amer] as means to alleviate racial inequities in academia. It is unlikely that scholars who critically and specifically study the Black experience will be motivated by these kinds of recruitment calls." 6/
"The proposed approach to studying race tragically decenters Blackness & effectively demonstrates that Black lives don’t matter to Stanford’s intellectual ambitions. The discipline of Black Studies extends far beyond the study of the “Impacts of Race in America.”" 8/
"Black Studies is an innovative discipline that epistemically disrupts anti-Blackness, both methodologically and intellectually. However, Blackness can also be a useful starting point to address issues of racism, classism, gender bias, and homophobia for all people" 9/
"Black Studies includes diaspora of Black thought in a way that the Uni’s approach does not. “Race in Am” is a ltd intellectual Q that neglects the global reality of anti-Blackness." 10/
"admins’ conceptualization of Black Studies as a ltd field of inquiry...fails to acknowledge immense intellectual project of African & Af-Am Studies. The discipline of Black Studies has historically valued & fostered global thinking" 11/
"While admins worry about Black Studies’ supposedly ltd focus, they have little to say about the Eurocentric curriculum & faculty specializations in the University’s traditional depts." 12/
"If admins would critically reflect on the discipline’s legacy at Stanford and beyond, they would see that a Black Studies department would enrich Stanford’s curriculum by strengthening the humanities and social sciences." 13/
"The departmentalization of AAAS should be a top priority on the administration’s agenda if the University is truly committed to joining its peer institutions in the fight to uproot white supremacy in higher education." 14/
full letter again: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/07/06/letter-to-the-president-and-provost-the-inadequacy-of-the-impacts-of-race-in-america/
full letter again: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/07/06/letter-to-the-president-and-provost-the-inadequacy-of-the-impacts-of-race-in-america/
