Ken Berwitz
…and she described herself as “Dirty South blackfeminist sociologist. Zora-type ethnographer. Some babies\’ mama. Negressdamus. Norf Memphis Teacake\’swife. Never in no particular order.”
Wouldyou figure that your tuition money was being well spent? That your child was getting a quality education, Free ofracism, of one-size-fits-all racial stereotypes? Would you be confidentthe college or university was preparing your child to go out into the world andbe an intelligent, open-minded, productive adult?
The professor in question – her screen name notwithstanding – is zandria robinson. The school in question – i.e. the place where this professor taught when she sent out these tweets – is the University of Memphis.
This past July, the University of Memphis either fired her or she left of her own accord – reports differ.
But Rhodes College, also in Memphis, was happy to snap her right up. And, knowing all about her overtly racist stereotyping – the kind that would get any White professor fired in two seconds flat if he or she stereotyped Black people that way – Rhodes describes robinson as “a leading scholar and authorin the areas of race, class, gender, culture, and the South, Dr. ZandriaRobinson\’s comments are sometimes provocative, controversial, and debatable…”
What\’s debatable is the sanity of whoever OKed this hire at Rhodes College.
Real racism. It comes in all forms from all sources. No group is immune to it, or from it. Certainly not a hate-filled drone like zandria robinson…or any institute of higher learning that would inflict her on its students.
