Aochen Li ASA002 A04 Week 4

Aochen Li ASA002 A04 Week 4

In the reading, "Investigating Discrimination: Injustice against Women of Color in the Academy", the author Jane June and Mai'a K.Davis Cross state the injustice happens in academia. In this reading, the phenomenon that the possibility for White junior faculty(especially White male faculty) to be awarded tenure is much higher than minority junior faculty is mentioned. This statement is supported by data and examples. "Eighty-one percent of white junior faculty (including both men and women) between 1998 and 2012 were awarded tenure, while 47.6 percent of minority junior faculty (including both men and women) were promoted to associate professor with tenure.", stated in the reading. The occurrence of a huge disparity of possibility is abnormal for two different groups of people. Also, the authors use the cases of USC's violation of the rule to support the opinion that the minority junior faculty are treated differently. The dean of USC made the cold calls to the scholars who are not in the same academic field as the candidate and use them to deny the candidate's tenure. This is a violation of the normal procedure that the candidate should be assessed by his/her colleagues instead of judging by any single person. 

From my perspective, discrimination in academia destroys the passions of people to pursue academic achievement. The unfair treatment can destroy the future of a lot of scholars who may have the potential to become the next Einstein or Hugo. Therefore, academic discrimination is not only unfair to certain races and gender, but also it may cause the loss of human beings. The breakthrough of technology can change the people's lives. The contribution of liberal art may change people's perspectives to view the world, to look back and consider the future. The injustice of academia will impede the development of the whole world.

Question: Will the discrimination phenomenon becomes less or disappear in the future if we strengthen the related education of our next generation?

Reference:

Valverde, K. C., Junn, J. M., & Cross, M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars' resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Snyder, B. (n.d.). [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/ideological-discrimination-colleges-universities-complicated/