Opinion: Penn State’s Commission on Racism, Bias, and Community Safety ‘an exercise in futility’
Following the brutal murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, colleges and universities across the nation reeked of remorse and began to reexamine their racial anatomy. Many, such as Penn State, recognized that their corpus academia consisted of a valley of dry bones wherein racial justice and anti-racism were skeletal, disjointed and devoid of flesh and skin. Our own institution sought to revive Ezekiel’s prophesy of resurrection by establishing the Select Commission on Racism, Bias, and Community Safety under ex-President Eric Barron.
Personally, I had serious reservations about the commission from the very beginning. I questioned if anything would result from its deliberations and requested a “down payment” as a measure of good faith. Well, after more than 2 years, I take no glee in declaring that the commission was an exercise in futility. It is shameful that not one single recommendation of any substance was ever implemented.
The commission’s recommendation to establish a scholarly Center for Racial Justice was one sign of hope as it was perceived as a symbol of redirection, an acknowledgment of our shortcomings, and a step into tomorrow. A panacea, it was not. Apparently, however, this symbol of racial reckoning and ideas were too “woke” for President Neeli Bendapudi’s administration and certain members of the board of trustees. According to some reports, the center was on the chopping block a mere few weeks after she assumed the mantle in Old Main.
The timing of the announcement to terminate the center was shocking, coming as it did two days after neo-Nazis descended upon our campus and the gallant protests by hundreds of mostly Penn State students. It was almost as though the administration was attempting to “balance the ledger.” OK, no racists on campus and no Center for Racial Justice. Charlottesville revisited, even Steven.
Unfortunately, the conniptions that the President went through to justify canceling the center were farcical and embarrassing. First, there was no money allocated in the budget by Barron for the center. Second, there was no money available due to a budget crisis. Third, ah eureka, they were able to locate the grandiose sum of $700,000 annually for 5 years that was originally allocated for the center. Now the latest rendition is that they will use the $700,000 a year pittance to resurrect the corpus academia and affix all things anatomically racial, making us whole. My Brooklyn Bridge is still up for sale.
I wonder has anyone, past or present, even apologized for the failure of the commission? Not to my knowledge. It is hard to believe that no one has expressed on behalf of the university a sincere apology and a good-old American “thank you” for the work, sacrifice, time and loss of hope to the commission’s members and volunteers who gave so much to this failed project. On top of this, you now have a former commission co-chairperson exhibiting “no shame in his game” in sharing a belated mea culpa that includes the puerile retort, essentially saying, “I told them not to do it.” Further, in the present context, I suggest considerable caution in invoking the unquestionably valid thesis of differential minoritized criticism. To some, it appears self-serving and as a thinly veiled attempt to preempt any critique of the President or the well-connected special advisor because they are women of color.
The last few weeks have been traumatic for students, staff, faculty and the community. In an unprecedented development, over 400 faculty signed a letter rebuking the present administration for its dismal failure. I was proud to join my colleagues in signing the letter and also proud that my College of Health and Human Development recently declared unequivocally that “racism is a threat to public health.”
My elegy? It is very sad that the commission had to suffer such a humiliating defeat. It did not have to end this way. What this debacle reveals is that when it comes to racial justice and anti-racism, we are still in the valley of dry bones. Ezekiel, where art thou?