PETITION IN SUPPORT OF BLACK WOMEN AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY 

Recent events in which a faculty member, Grant Farred, in Africana at Cornell felt he was free to directly address black women graduate students as “black bitches” highlights that we are still beset with the problem of positively addressing black women’s presence in the academy and the larger community. This is an assault on all black women at Cornell irrespective of their positions, and an assault on all women. Thus, we defend ourselves from this form of violence. We ask your support as we again address an issue that pollutes and poisons the environment.

We assert that we cannot work safely in an Africana with sexist, homophobic men or women who support them and that young graduate students who are embarking on their careers should not come into the academy into this kind of hostility and toxicity. The racist sexism in the academy that allows administrators to consistently ignore this kind of behavior must end!  When a professor in Africana refers to Black women as “Black bitches,” he assaults all black women and black people in general.

We demand:

(1) That the University administration recognize its complicity in supporting  the behavior of this professor and instead of covering it up assign appropriate blame for unprofessional and sexist and racist conduct.

(2) That Africana make it a priority to hire progressive and conscious male and female faculty who can be advocates for black students and who are able to act in favor of the historic intent of Africana Studies.

(3) That the University move Farred from Africana and let him be in a department which supports that kind of conduct.

We the undersigned indicate by our signature our support for these demands and by these means condemn this horrible state of affairs

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