The Times Higher Education has prompted a debate in the teaching academy over a call for “Black bereavement leave” by Angel Jones, a visiting assistant professor teaching educational leadership courses at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. Jones wrote that Black educators need time off to cope with the killings of black individuals in society. The leave would not depend on the educators knowing or having any relationship to the deceased.
Jones wrote in the academic publication that
“Some may have thought I was joking when I mentioned Black bereavement leave, but I wasn’t. We need space and time to grieve without having to explain or defend it. And since the grief process, like the Black community, is not a monolith, flexibility is required.
…
Some may need a day off while others may just need to be able to work from home. Some may need a small extension on a deadline while others may need to have something removed from their plate completely.”
Jones said that such leave can help faculty connect with students and the community at large. She also said that the leave will show real commitment to racial justice since “history has shown us that Black educators often have to exert additional emotional energy to pick up the slack the academy leaves behind after it sends its obligatory, and often performative, statement to the campus community.” She insists that “anti-Blackness is intentional” so it requires actions like black bereavement leave.
“while those obviously copy-pasted, campus-wide emails are the bare minimum, Black faculty and staff don’t even get that. Where is the acknowledgment of our pain? Where are our counselling services? Where is our grace for missed meetings and deadlines while we mourn? Yes, we have jobs to do and students to support, but we also have trauma to process.”
The question is whether such race-based leave would be constitutional. Jones is calling for a categorical leave option only available to black educators. That could trigger a challenge by non-Black faculty.
The Supreme Court has required satisfaction of the strict scrutiny test in race-based programs but has not (thus far) ruled out any consideration of race in admissions or other benefits. If subject to a strict scrutiny analysis, the universities would need to show a “compelling state interest” and that the program is “narrowly tailored” to achieve that purpose. The key here is that Jones is arguing for a categorical benefit based solely on race as opposed to a case-by-case determination by university administrators. The latter is more likely to survive challenge as based on an individual professor’s need for accommodation or care.
Universities have increasingly embraced race-based programs from “Affinity housing” to safe spaces for minority students. This issue came up in a little reported exchange in the oral argument in Students for Fair Admissions v. the University of North Carolina between Justice Amy Coney Barrett and David Hinojosa, the director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
JUSTICE BARRETT: One question. One — one difference between your brief and your position and University of North Carolina’s is that from the student’s perspective — and you were getting at this in some of your answers to Justice Sotomayor early on about confederate statues and the presence of white supremacist groups — is that from the student perspective, you know, students — the educational benefit to the students might be in the form of counteracting feelings of isolation, sticking out, not being supported.
In light of that, I’m wondering if you have anything to say about affinity groups and affinity housing? I think one thing at least insofar as I’m aware at the time Grutter was decided and certainly Bakke, that kind of a phenomenon where you have groups, say, where, you know, black students and allies can live or, you know, black student groups, same for, you know, Hispanic groups, et cetera, was not a phenomenon that was around then.
And — and I think one of the benefits is that it allows minority students to ban together to reduce some of the feelings of isolation that you’ve been talking about. Do your clients have a position on that and whether that would be — because whatever we say or however broadly we wrote this opinion, that rationale about the educational benefits of diversity presumably might have some bearing on those questions that are post-admission questions?
MR. HINOJOSA: Yes, Your Honor. So, you know, those — those do invite, you know, very difficult questions. And I think that’s how and why a potential color-blind ruling from this Court, you know, may disrupt things even further, but also about how, you know, certain conditions may apply on a case-by-case basis. So I may not be making too much sense with what I just said there, but, you know, in terms of affinity groups, for example, research shows that affinity groups have incredible benefits not just, you know, for its own members but in helping the broader community understand, for example, you know, racial and cultural issues, you know, that they might raise. It’s not my understanding that there are any affinity groups, especially, for example, you know, black student associations that —
JUSTICE BARRETT: I’m really thinking
MR. HINOJOSA: — exclude any students.
JUSTICE BARRETT: — mostly about affinity housing. And I — I understand Chapel Hill does not have it, but UNC Wilmington does. Would your clients have a position on affinity housing?
MR. HINOJOSA: I — I — I do not know, Your Honor.
If non-Black faculty are denied the same leave, they could get standing by showing that such leaves increases their own burden for teaching and student engagement. They could also claim that they have comparative bereavement demands that are not given such categorical accommodations.
Jones received her Ph.D from George Washington University, two degrees from Georgia State University, and her B.A. from Syracuse University. He faculty bio states that her “work is grounded in Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Feminism and acknowledges the roles that race and racism play in the lives of Black students.”
The woke have dragged us backward literally by decades. If there isn’t some type of global conflict in our future due to their idiocy, it’ll be a miracle. Unbelievable. This is what institutional fragility looks like, and it’s what many of us feared when people like this were still children and that all started becoming apparent.
The obsession with all things race continues unabated in the United States. Professor Jones might consider with going out with Chicago PD on a ride along to see how how things are working out with black-on-black murder in the Windy City……. or I guess just keeping droning on to the rest of us about how we need to pay up for an invented new leave category for university professors. Thank you, Jonathan, for an excellent article.
Can I have berievment because of black behavior.
Blacks should reimburse nonblack Americans for their wasted tax dollars that support the constant need of law enforcement, first responders, public housing, food assistance, Medicaid, etc to rescue blacks from blacks self-inflicted behaviors. yes, reparations at all cost. or they can be provided a one way ticket via boat to Africa (the way they got here) but this time without chains, to rejoin their tribes there, not that the latter would put up with their schlit.
對非黑人的賠償
I am truly tired of special needs for not so special people. The world is a tough space, if not down right frightening today. Get used to it. All people grieve in different ways and at different times. It’s personal, family, cultural and sometimes determined by the relationship of the death to the grieving individual. If you wish or want to cry for the world, then do so but on your own time.
“No man is an island, entire of itself….. Any man’s death diminishes me, because of I am involved in mankind”. Race is not mentioned here not should it ever be. No special places or special dorms, or safe spaces. We are involved with each other for better or worse. Best we get thrown together and learn that.
Does it surprise that power is corrupting and seeks wealth and benefits not fairly earned? We mustn’t be so acquiescent in ceding such power. It really is as simple as saying no, come and take it if you dare.
I feel really bad when our president falls over his words or falls up the stairs and get really depressed. Can I take off a couple of days to process my depression?
I an a grumpy old Veteran….got the Tee Shirt (wearing it as I type this).
Does this latest movement seeking a hand out favoring those who wear their skin color on their shirtsleeve warrant the Supreme Court wasting its time on it?
As soon as I hear CRT, 1619, BLM, SPLC, Reparations, Affirmative Action…..I know that MLK is rolling over in his Grave.
We have abandoned commonsense and the Law where “equality”, “freedom”, and fair treatment were the goals. I would include “Equal Justice” but there is none in existence in this Nation.
Then the Democrats got into the Hand Out game buying Votes using Tax Money and foisting this latest array of race bating on us.
UNC-Chapel Hill is a disgrace to the State of North Carolina….a Radical Leftist producing center of minimum standards of scholastics that produces the brain washed individuals we see figuring in this case.
It also was involved in very questionable Covid Research that may have contributed to the scourge of what we now call the Covid Pandemic as it was conducting that has been called into question.
None of what the Left is pushing is good for the American People…..NONE!
I will ask my usual question of the Left when they come up with yet another absolutely loony idea…..”Who is going to pay for this and what is the benefit to Society as a whole (not just the ones with their hands stuck out palm upwards)?
She needs to mourn the destruction of the black nuclear family which underlies all of this. (70% single mother birthrate.)
This cannot be repeated to often.
It would be unwise to presume that blacks are stupid and do not understand the causes of their own problems.
Charter schools are extremely popular with single minority women.
It is the best hope their children have for a better life.
You would not think it but some of the strongest support for more policing is in minority communities.
No mother of a 16yr old boy wants their son arrested – possibly even shot by a police officer over drug dealing.
BUT No mother of a 6yr old wants their son to grow up to be a 16yr old drug dealer.
Left polices have destroyed poor and minority communities – the people in them know that.
WE should just understand that politicians crave power – regardless of the color of their skin, and left policies give politicians power – so long as their victims do not understand. That is changing.
It seems we are living in satire written by Evelyn Waugh.
“Should Universities Offer Black Bereavement Leave?”
Yes — permanent leave.
Tribalists do not belong in academia. There are ethnic gangs throughout the country that would openly embrace them and their ideology.
No, the opposite in fact. Academia should take responsibility for the downstream effects of its teachings. For every black on black murder they should have to put in a day of unpaid overtime.
Just end the government subsized student loan programs.
That will have two massively important benefits.
First the cost of higher education will plummet – even the US government calculates that each $1 of Student loans it has guaranteed have increased the cost of college by $0.80.
The next effect is that as people have to pay for college themselves – or borrow on the unsubsidized market – both the buyers of higher education and the sellors – Students/Parents and colleges will be far more focused on the VALUE they deliver.
Left wing nuts do not last long in free markets – despite the massive woke generation flooding the workforce, and the rush of many private entities to embrace that – the backlash is already underway.
The Market for Woke is Tiny, and few businesses thrive selling to niche markets.
Regardless at the end of the day:
Standard of living rises when humans produce more than humans value with less human effort.
That is universally true. It is true in free markets. It is true in socialist nations. It is true everywhere always.
But only works well – produces rapidly rising standard of living in free markets.
Socialism has an unfortunate shallow appeal to our minds.
But it is only free markets that in practice deliver prosperity.
If you want to fix institutions that have been overrun by left wing nuts – there is no need for a “long march”
all that is necescary is to move the issue from ivory tower debate to real world practice.
Left wing ideology is a luxury good that no one will buy unless it is heavily subsized.
End the subsidies and it dies rapidly and naturally.
John B Say (@johnbsay) says:
Anyone that wishes can already take time off whenever they please for any reason or no reason.
This is exactly my thought.
This is an example of college Professors, in general and Black College Professors specifically are devoid of reason and logic and driven to fits of emotionalism that puts into serious question their scholarship.
I thought we all grieved in our own way and own time. But this Phd professor is telling me Black are all the same.
If you want a system wide time off slot. Take it from something already existing. A fair way would be to allow X berrevement days per year. Use them all up in the first month of the cycle, you make your choices.
You know what happens when black gang bangers shoot up a party and kill five blacks? I’ll tell you. All the blacks play deaf, blind and mute, when talking to the police to apprehend the killers. Because Blacks refuse to actually take action to stop the killing. So they protect the killers, but demand time off because the deaths cause so much pain.
Logic and reason, not talents be exhibited here.
A good post, but I would suggest that despite the racist nature of the original premise that we leave the racism to those on the left.
Minorities in this country are shifting right – more rapidly than the country as a whole – and we should welcome them.
SOME Black (and White) voices from the left are a reflection of the idiocy of the Left, not that of blacks.
Most measures that conservatives favor that have supermajority support – have supermajority support among minorities – among blacks.
During the Summer of mostly peaceful riots in 2020, a significant portion of the violence was instigated by Antifa or a few black extremists.
There is plenty of evidence that blacks do not want anyone to burn down their communities, their stores.
There is plenty of news stories of Black mothers in tears because the walmarts, the Targets, the corner stores that were destroyed – are probably not coming back.
By overwhelming majorities blacks wont MORE police, not less.
The largest single group supporting charter schools are black single mothers. That is the only hope they have of their children having a better life than they do. DeSantis defeated Gilliam in 2018 because 300,000 single black women with children voted for him – because Gillium promised to end the charter schools that were their kids only hope for the future.
In arguably the left has been a complete disaster for the poor and minorities of all kinds for 70+ years.
All that is necessary for them to walk away from the left is not to drive them back.
It is beyond beleif that an ideology that has been such a colossal failure everywhere it has been tried, has so much power and influence. But it is a mistake to presume that real support is deep or broad.
The rhetoric of the left – the name calling the Nazi comparisons are all signs of desparation.
Of understanding that no one will vote for democrats or their polices without the fear that those not on the left are genocidal maniacs.
We should not help them, even a little.
It is probable that a disproportionately large percent of black professors are on the far left – though even thatis difficult to assess as the entirety of academia is falling off the edge of the earth looney left.
But it is not even close to true that the majority of blacks are left wing nuts.
Svelaz rants about my attacks on “left wing nuts”.
With rare exceptions of prominent self admitted left wing nuts, I do not identify individuals, and left wing nuts is does not discriminate based on any immutable characteristic.
Svelaz takes umbrage at the term, and in doing so SELF IDENTIFIES as a left wing nut. His choice.
More racist insanity. Amazing how racist people become when they focus on race all the time.
The most telling words in this grifter’s memo are “the bare minimum.” That’s right white folks: you can “take the knee,” declare your atonement, get rid of your entrance exams, cancel classes and tests, give everyone an “A,” segregate your dorms, provide safe spaces, and admit students who clearly cannot compete — but that’s just the “bare minimum.” There’s an unspoken rule that all grifters, victims, and activists abide by: keep demanding more because it’s never enough.
Whence comes the necessity to capitalize the “B” in black while the “w” in white is lower case? Another goofy practice that can’t vanish too soon along with reperations.
Two things I refuse to do, capitalize the b for blacks while not doing so for the w in whites and calling a rapist pretending to be a woman in order to go to a female prison “she”.
It drives me crazy when non-liberal sites such as the NY Post and Fox call a pretend woman she when HE still has all of his male parts.
s/he?
“Jones said that such leave can help faculty connect with students and the community at large.”
If it was Glenn Loury or Clarence Thomas or Thomas Sowell, maybe, but black-activist professors? No. No way. Black activists are the problem, not the solution. They’re typically radicals that race bait and scapegoat other communities.
CRT, 1619 project, etc. etc. etc. Scott Adams made a valid point about racism within the black community. The way he put it was controversial but no more controversial than Joy Reid in any given week. She gets primetime and he gets canceled. That’s systemic racism.
“Scott Adams made a valid point about racism within the black community.”
Here’s what’s particularly galling:
CRT/DEI types smear race all over the culture. Then they’re shocked when race is spread throughout the entire culture.
I don’t think they’re complaint is with racism.
In Rwanda, the complaint that ignited the genocide was supposed racism–by other blacks!! How’s that for logic?? The real problem was overpopulation and poverty.
Not to be outdone, the Democrats are importing overpopulation and poverty as fast as they can.
Diogenes,
This, too, was a problem:
“A 2014 paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, “Propaganda and Conflict: Evidence from the Rwandan Genocide,” looks at the impact of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), a key media outlet for the Hutu-led government, on violence and killings of the Tutsi minority. The study, by David Yanagizawa-Drott from the Harvard Kennedy School, analyzes how exposure to propaganda and inflammatory messages calling for the extermination of the Tutsis fueled violence by the Hutu population.”
https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/propaganda-conflict-evidence-rwandan-genocide/
So every time a white person gets murdered by a black person…will WHITES get bereavement?? Why not. Equal justice and all that.
Wen, that is way too logical. If the moronic public was made aware of the stats for black on white crime vs white on black crime there would be an uproar. Never before in history has a minority abused the majority in such a fashion.
Sure, and then “white bereavement leave” would be Constitutionally required and then the re-segregation of dormitories and graduation ceremonies will complete the picture. Already happening, folks.
Anyone that wishes can already take time off whenever they please for any reason or no reason.
Of course there is no assurance there will be a job waiting for them when they return.
Why is it so hard to understand that we can only consume what we produce ?
Your value as a teacher is the teaching you do.
Your value as a welder is the welding you do.
Sick time, personal time, bereavement leave, are only valuable to the extent that they enable you to produce more.
This is ridiculous. Another example of needing a ” safe space” if ” Triggered” by a ” microaggression”. Not terms I would ever use. But I am prepared to be ” reasonable”. If this is enacted, it should NOT apply when a Black person is killed by another Black person.
I have no problem with the concept.
I think colleges and other employers should offer those who work for them 5% time off for whatever reasons the employee wishes at a 10% reduction in pay.
One of the most fundimental lessons in economics is 5,000 years old and found in genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you shall earn your daily bread.
Your food, your health insurance, your time off, exist only because of what you are able to produce.
Considering that blacks, 13% of the population, account for 56% of murder victims – 86% by other blacks, she need bereavement leave every day of the year. She needs to mourn the destruction of the black nuclear family which underlies all of this. (70% single mother birthrate.)
Maybe she needs to mourn the War on Poverty. Maybe we all need that.