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Constructively Demoted
As seen from Race Traitor #8 (1998)
By Thomas D. Landefeld
A recent issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the University of Michigan faces three lawsuits from former professors alleging racial basis. I am the plaintiff in one of the three suits, and nominally what is known as "white" in this country. As Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, I mounted an active effort to recruit minority students, and voiced concern about the lack of adequate efforts at retention. I insisted on the need, when considering a candidate for admission, to take into account factors besides grades and standardized test scores, looking at qualities and experiences relevant to both medicine and humankind.
When the Assistant Dean for Student and Minority Affairs resigned, I was appointed Interim Assistant Dean. In that position I spoke in defense of three Black students who had been recommended for dismissal. I also called a meeting of minority students to discuss their concerns, which led to a letter from the students to the University President. I wrote numerous letters to campus and local publications denouncing racial bias, and testified on the subject before the Michigan House Appropriations subcommittee on higher education. Although I thought I was doing exactly what the Assistant dean for Minority Affairs was supposed to do, people in the Administration asked why I was "stirring up those people?" It quickly became evident that I was not one of the "old boys"; in fact, I was acting like on of "those people."
What does the system do with someone who is considered a threat? As a tenured professor, I could not be dismissed without cause. I could, however, be marginalized, disenfranchised, and eventually ostracized. In effect, I was constructively demoted.
When the Department appointed to a position concerned with minority admissions a colleague who had been reported to have made anti-Black remarks, I wrote a letter to the Department Chair expressing my concerns. Instead of speaking to me or investigating the charges, the Chair went to the Professor, who went to the Provost, who distributed a letter to the Department denouncing me for making "serious" and "unsubstantiated" charges. The Department refused to recommend me for promotion to full professor, because I was spending too much time in administrative work. The Provost backed the Department, telling me to get my promotion by doing more research, after which I could direct my efforts toward "other" activities. This was in spite of the University mandate to increase diversity. I was also denied normal pay raises.
As a member of the Medical School Admissions Committee and chair of the subcommittee charged with reviewing minority applications, I had contacted colleagues across the country, particularly at Black colleges, to arrange visits to their institutions. Despite my considerable success in establishing a University presence in minority programs, I was directed to cease recruiting any students to any programs at Michigan, and was falsely accused of misrepresenting myself. When I filed a formal grievance, the Review Board refused to consider that aspect associated with the prohibition of recruiting. Four separate faculty groups stated that the order warranted a violation-of-tenure hearing, but the University refused, thereby thumbing its nose at the faculty tenure system.
After serving on almost every committee in the University relating to minority affairs, including Martin Luther King Day Planning, Review of Minority Fellowships and Applications, etc., I was removed from all administrative responsibilities in the University, the Medical School, and the Department. When the mother of a Black student demanded I be present at a meeting about her son, the Dean replied that I could attend but could not speak.
If being a traitor to whiteness means fighting so hard against white supremacy that I have jeopardized my own ability to draw on the privileges of the white skin, then I would say I qualify. Unequivocally it has been worth it. There are indeed risks in confronting conformity, but there are also many rewards. I have been ready not only to accept the rewards but to pay the price.
I believe I helped to bring about individual improvements at the University of Michigan Medical School; programmatic change, however, was more difficult. In an effort to effect the latter, I chose to file a lawsuit. I relocated to another university, not because of harassment but so I could continue to wage the struggle in this critical area.
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