Ward Churchill vs. Horovitz

For those who do not know, Ward Churchill is a controversial activist, a self proclaimed champion of native American rights, who is in great trouble because conservative activists have challenged Churchill's tenure based on evidence that he has committed academic misconduct including falsifying facts and plagiarism. Recently a professor at Washington State University posted his concern that Churchill's case would be seen by minority group faculty and students as a strike against their role in academe.

My response:

It seems to me that some of what Professor Streamus says plays into the hands of Churchill's antagonists.

Our colleague from WSU implies that there is a systematic discrimination against academics because of skin color, i.e. that the academic community lives in a dialectic of "people of color" vs. "white people." With all due respect to the real issues confronting undeserved minorities, Professor Streamas' charge is difficult to accept in a world like our own unless one uses a very strange brush to decide which national origins are and which are not "colored." Indeed part of the controversy about Churchill is is his own self designation. The use of the term "people of color" also makes a distinction that is probably obsolete given current concerns about Hispanic Americans whose ethnic origin in many cases has nothing to do with the melanin content of their skin. I would hope no-one would remove the melanin from students of Asian origin because of their wide spread success.

There are real issues of bigotry persistent in our system but lumping them under the shadow of "people of color" does a disservice to the academy.

That said, John Streamus has identified the two most disturbing parts of the entire contretemps.

1. This controversy is clearly the result of outside, politically motivated pressure. It seems unimaginable that Churchill's tenure would have ever become an issue if he had not been targeted by the right for their own political reasons. If Churchill is dismissed, the effects on tenure for everyone will be serious.

2. Churchill's dismissal will inevitably be interpreted by many as evidence of persistent racism.

Of course this creates exactly the kind of conflict sought by Churchill's antagonists. They claim, as does Professor Streamus, that the University is not fair, that we are incapable of separating prejudices of the left (in the case of the antagonists) from professional decisions about scholarship. "

Are "we" are damned by one side or the other no matter what happens to Churchill? With all due respect to Professor Streamus, I do not think we need to be damned, I think we can avoid the worst part of the intent of the antagonists is and only iff the outcome of this case is rigorously open and fair.

This thread is part of that process!

Original letter:

On 7/17/07, Streamas, John wrote:

As a teacher of color working in the field of Ethnic Studies, I’ve been curious to see the issue of racism raised in this discussion only to be dismissed. Last year at the annual conference of the American Studies Association two important scholars, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and David Roediger, urged their large audience to support Churchill no matter what they felt about him personally. They then named other teachers of color, all of them junior (even introduced an audience member who teaches at Arizona State, an Asian American woman), who are under fire from right-wing groups such as those headed by David Horowitz for teaching “dangerously irresponsible” or “un-American” ideas. The attacks upon Middle Eastern Studies in several presumably “progressive” universities has been part of this campaign. Here at Washington State University last year, the College Republicans staged an aggressively xenophobic and racist anti-immigrant rally in the middle of campus, during which they shouted racial slurs to students of color. Rather than punishing the College Republicans, administrators here labeled students and faculty of color “troublemakers” and refused to act. The Office of Equity and Diversity stood by and did nothing. Now we have lost several students of color who feel unwelcome and terrorized. Two of my own favorite and best students have dropped out and plan to transfer, even knowing that they will lose many credits, and even though they were within a semester of finishing. Administrations are caving in to pressures from monied right-wing groups all over the nation.

In my classes, I teach about Truman’s decision to use the atomic bombs. I show students that, within days, Langston Hughes and many other prominent, thoughtful writers in the black press denounced the bomb as a “race weapon,” claiming that it would never have been used on what Hughes called “the white enemy.” My point is not to debate this issue exactly but to ask students why these writers of color (as well as writers in the Latino and indigenous communities) condemned the bomb as a race weapon. Why is their understanding of U.S. race history so important in determining their reading of current events? Personally, I think Churchill is being wrongly framed—I know several people who have taken classes from him and swear that he’s an excellent teacher, for example—but even if he’s not, we faculty of color know that, everywhere, students of color still drop out of college at substantially higher rates than white students, AND we know that faculty of color are still denied tenure at rates higher than white faculty. That these problems persist leads us not to paranoia or “playing the race card” but to urge that the problems be solved fairly.

It’s extremely easy to cover up racism on campus. And it’s no secret that junior faculty of color are vulnerable. In PWIs (Predominantly White Institutions) we get little or no mentoring, and our commitments to our students of color, who trust us and need our support, don’t count as service. I want Churchill to keep his job partly because I think he deserves it, but also partly because we teachers and students of color need to be able to cling to some small hope that the David Horowitzes of the world haven’t won. Yet.

--John Streamas

Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies

Washington State University

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--
Stephen M. Schwartz
Pathology