Racism and Sexism in

Academic Philosophy -

Rutgers University, New Brunswick

 

Racism in Academic Philosophy in Canada, England, and the USA

 

Sexism in Academic Philosophy in Canada, England, and USA

 

By: Shawn Alli
Posted: May 9, 2016

Racism and Sexism Academic Philosophy - Rutgers University small

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*All individuals and organizations receive 7 full days of pre-publication notice (11 including weekends).


*I ask for a request for comment from the philosophy department instead of the university spokesperson because it's the philosophy department (philosophers) that are racist or sexist.


*I round up to one decimal place for all figures.

Racism Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Sexism Rutgers University, New Brunswick

In a request for comment I ask them:

1. Do you believe that 7/30 women in tenure-track positions represents sexism in the Rutgers University, New Brunswick philosophy department?

2. Do you believe that 3/30 visible minorities in tenure-track positions represents racism in the Rutgers University, New Brunswick philosophy department?

 

Rutgers Philosophy Professor Douglas Husak is kind enough to respond:

I am the Chair of the Rutgers Climate Committee in the Department of Philosophy. We here at Rutgers take very seriously our commitment to creating and maintaining an atmosphere in which every student can study and learn to the best of his or her abilities. I am unaware of a department anywhere that takes climate issues more seriously than we. We are awaiting the results of an internal survey that should give us pretty reliable data on how well we are doing.
I find your request pretty unusual and unexplained. The short answer to each of your questions is an emphatic "no". A longer answer would require a lot of background discussion.

 

My request is pretty unusual? Seriously? Rutgers tenure-track visible minority faculty is 10%, with women doing slightly better at 23.3%. Even if I lower my standards that's pretty bad.

 

A long answer requires background discussion? Again, this is intellectuals trying to justify their work as being necessary to understand the problem. In reality, racist and sexist ideologies by white-European male philosophers who make up the hiring committee is the real problem.

 

A few days later Rutgers Climate Committee is kind enough to respond as well:


Thank you for reaching out to us for a comment. We would like to make a minor correction to your data. The department hires direct to tenure. Thus, a more accurate statement would replace "tenure-track positions" with "tenured positions."

In regard to your questions, the short answer is that no, we do not believe these numbers reflect racism and sexism in the department. While sexism and racism do exist in the profession, inferring either of these ills from demographic statistics about the department faculty would be an oversimplification that ignores broad issues in the field as well as specific circumstances in our department. For example, many of the department's faculty were hired 15 or more years ago. However, over half of our new hires since 2011 have been women.

More importantly, we feel that, while the department is not perfect, it remains an excellent and welcoming place for women and minorities to do professional philosophy. We take our commitment to providing such an environment seriously and have taken steps, such as forming a climate committee, hosting annual talks on climate issues, and conducting biennial climate surveys, to ensure that we continue to uphold this commitment.

Also, we have 2 recurring visiting professors who are women (Marilyn McCord Adams and Anne Ashbaugh, according to the website) as well as more women and minorities in our Associate Graduate Faculty.

 

It's great that Rutgers hires direct to tenure. But most universities don't. As I mention in the main articles, some people have been faculty members for 9 years without tenure.

 

The ideology that 10% of tenure-track visible minorities in the department is an oversimplification, is intellectuals trying to garbage you. They're just trying to defend their intellectual life of luxury. In reality the problem is racist and sexist ideologies. Looking at sexism and racism through an intellectual lens will never lead to viable solutions. This is something that most intellectuals can never understand (see Philosophy Reborn Part II: Social Humanities).

 

I don't include visiting professors as tenure-track professors.

 

The comment about most faculty members being there for more than 15 years is interesting. I see this as old white-European intellectuals refusing to make space for visible minorities and women in the department. And no, you can't say that they need the money. 15 years of making over 100K/year is enough to live like a king. These old white-European dinosaurs refuse to leave because they want to continue their life of luxury while philosophizing to students.