Is it a level playing field for professors of color in academia?
Here’s a story that broke before Christmas that will make you question what it takes to prove discrimination.
Two university professors of color who sued the University of Michigan for multiple violations of the Michigan Elliot-Larsen Civil rights Act say they will continue to fight for justice after a jury rejected their claims Dec. 20 in Ann Arbor.
Scott Kurashige, a Japanese American who had been with the university since 2000 and fully tenured since 2012, and his wife Emil Lawsin, a Filipino American lecturer in women’s studies and American culture since 2000, filed the civil suit in 2017.
“Since then we’ve revealed smoking gun evidence exposing the systemic machinations behind the firing, failed retention, and denial of hire of activist faculty of color,” Kurashige said in a Facebook post after the jury’s verdict against them. “We’ve exposed how the complaints of PhD students of color being harassed and stigmatized by white faculty were met with cover up and retaliation. And how critical thinking and the education of students were sacrificed to continue the cover up. We couldn’t convince a nearly all-white jury this violated the law. But the truth is out there, so we’ll live to fight another day.”
Kurashige’s attorney Alice Jennings said an appeal is planned.
The jury deliberated for just two hours before siding with the university.
