What to Do When You’re the Wrong Kind of Black Academic

Recently, De Anza Community College fired Tabia Lee as its faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education for taking an inclusive and dialogical approach to her job that did not align with the school’s particular version of social justice. What makes this different from others who have lost their jobs for not toeing this ideological line? Lee is black, and she was accused of being a white supremacist. Erec Smith of York College of Pennsylvania has also been vilified for questioning the efficacies of contemporary anti‐​racist theories and practices.

In this online forum, Lee and Smith will discuss their experiences and theorizations about being black academics who embrace classical liberal values in academic spaces that seem to grow increasingly hostile to such views, especially from people of color. As cofounders of Free Black Thought, an organization that celebrates viewpoint diversity among black Americans, their perspective may provide a different and nuanced understanding of social justice and anti‐​racist initiatives in higher education (and beyond).

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