I’m delighted to share that my article, “Neither Just Nor Equitable: Race in the Congressional Debate of the Second Morrill Act of 1890”, has been chosen as the 2020 Article of the Year by the American Educational History Journal. A year later, here are my reflections (thread) https://twitter.com/drkwheatle/status/1171891751507955712

First, thank you to all of you for your interest in reading the work. It is clear that the academic and practical field of #highered is hungry for more historical examinations on race and policy. I hope that you will continue to expand your reading and curiosity. (2/x)

Second, I am deeply concerned that our field reaches to history as a crystal ball to solve problems but ignores the racism that has been blueprinted in archives. My article required methodology, yes, but it also required an analysis of how race operates in policymaking (3/x)

One of the most important implications from my work is that racism is not about feelings. I can care less about how you FEEL about race. In fact, little in public policy should be based on one’s emotions, as they are fleeting.(4/x)

Provocative considering how much of policymaking harnesses other people’s emotions towards an intended policy outcome. (4.5/x)

Racism is a system meant to destroy and oppress a community based on the value system placed on their socially defined race. And, anything that assists in that destruction is a “tool” of white supremacy. By its construction, the Morrill Acts were tools of white supremacy. (5/x)

My intention, as an historian, is not shock and awe. I set out to write a history that better explained the mechanics, transactions, contracts and social networks in which white supremacy in #highered federal policy resides and thrives. (6/x)

These days, racist outcomes may be unintentional, but racism is not an accident. If we are truthful about how our systems operate, we can be more honest about the measures that we must take to truly enact anti-racism in #highered (7/x)

“Neither Just Not Equitable” is not the first to make such declarative statements about the Morrill Acts. But, it is the first to offer how Congress engaged in dialogue about #highered funding in a post-Civil War/ end of Reconstruction world. (8/x)

I think there’s still much to unlearn and relearn about how racism operates in and around institutions of #highered. I hope that this contribution sparks further intellectual curiosity and squelches continued ahistoricism in our policy practice. (9/x)

Thank you to @OHistorians and AEHJ for recognizing the work and its contribution to the broader narrative. I look forward to the annual conference! (thread fin)