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November 20, 2019
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PSU Black Studies at Risk, Professor says
C ontinued From F ront
areas.”
Johnson said those are the more
subtle ways racism affects black
bodies, but said the violent death
from gunfire at the hands of cam-
pus police and slow deaths from
stress-causing racism are inter-
connected.
He cites the example of an out-
spoken PSU black professor who
was denied tenure because, John-
son believes, he actively called
out racism on campus and clashed
with more conservative high-
er-ups. He died at 50 from a heart
attack and Johnson wonders if the
frustration of being one of the few
voices speaking out against white
supremacy and not getting the
support of the university led to his
early demise.
The school also has not cor-
rectly supported the Multicultural
Center on campus, which pro-
motes activities for non-white stu-
dents, Johnson said.
He said the center’s former co-
ordinator, for example a person
of color, expanded the center to
better serve all minorities, even
opening it up for Friday prayers
for Muslim students. But several
years ago, the job was elevated
to a director position and a white
woman was hired to head it up.
The former black male coordi-
nator was passed over for promo-
tion to the new position despite his
experience and success at “truly
practicing equity,” Johnson said.
The man then died of a stroke in
his early 60s, which Johnson at-
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tributes, at least in part, to stress
he experienced with being treated
unfairly by PSU.
Johnson is not alone in his criti-
cism. He said a study of the Black
Studies Department conducted by
PSU two years ago found that fac-
ulty in the department were “ex-
hausted and overextended” and
predicted without new faculty the
department was unsustainable.
“So, in the celebration of Black
Study’s 50th year in existence, we
also get to watch its death,” Johnson
said. “Without the faculty to run the
department, Black Studies will not
be able to fulfill its course rotation,
student advising and research re-
sponsibilities. It will disappear.”
To add insult to injury, Johnson
said the school gave his depart-
ment only $5,000 to stage a 50th
anniversary celebration, and that’s
not enough to do it right, he said.
“That’s nothing as far as fly-
ing someone (a guest speaker)
in, housing them and renting a
space,” he said. “That’s nothing.
It’s really a slap in the face.”
Johnson cites a decrease in ad-
ministrative support for the Black
Studies Department over the past
few years, to that point that PSU
administrators refuse to fill va-
cancies in his department, while
claiming budget constraints.
Larger departments have had
their faculty vacancies filled,
Johnson said, but his is the small-
est department on campus, and the
cuts have a huge ripple effect that
is diminishing the black studies
program.
“They say we’re not grow-
ing and there’s no evidence we
need more,” he said. “They say
we don’t have lots of majors and
minors, but that’s actually not the
case.”
Johnson says “there is no ex-
cuse” for the university to not
invest more in his department,
which can’t be expected to grow
if it’s not supported.
“You can’t grow unless you
have the capacity to grow,” he
said.
For PSU to claim that it has a
supportive campus for diversity is
disingenuous, Johnson said, and
the school should step up and do
the right thing by hiring more in-
structors for black studies.
Hiring five or six more instruc-
tors would allow the black studies
department to add more courses
to the curriculum to attract more
students, which would help the
program grow, he said.
“It’s hard to complete majors
sometimes because courses aren’t
offered,” he said. “I’m not trying
to throw dirt. I’m only concerned
about growing our department.”
(Editor’s note: See Professor
Ethan Johnson’s critical paper in
its entirety in the opinion section
of this issue on page 9)
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