In the Seattle Times today, there was an article about how the Trump administration was attacking George Mason University
The
Education Department said it is responding to a complaint from multiple
professors at George Mason who accuse the university of favoring those
from underrepresented groups.
and
Craig
Trainor, acting assistant secretary for the Education Department’s
Office for Civil Rights, said “it appears” that George Mason’s hiring
and promotion policies “not only allow but champion illegal racial
preferencing.”
This really made my head spin--
I'm assuming they are referring to people other than White Men
So
say, a department with all tenured or tenure-track faculty are White
Men and the hiring committee comes back with an intention to hire a
Black Woman
They might accuse the hiring committee of "favoring those from underrepresented groups"
So does that mean the department can NEVER hire a black woman? Because that ALWAYS means they are "favoring those from underrepresented groups?"
Or does it mean they can sometimes hire a Black Woman but only if she's got Exceptional Credentials and is as good as them.
So that Black Woman would have to constantly defend herself as a "DEI Hire" because she's a member of an underrepresented group.
To
be fair, likely the White Men are complaining that a White Man
candidate (more like them) was passed over by a 'less' undeserving
candidate (according to them) from an underrepresented group. Even
though this candidate may bring a new voice to the department. Or not.
Since when did efforts to
“not only allow but champion illegal racial preferencing.” was NOT
racist. Of course it's racist. Isn't that what's been happening all these decades and
generations when, in most all cases, the only acceptable candidate WAS a
White Man. Underrepresented groups were never considered.
Picture came from Harvard Business Review - used without permission