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Angela Putnam, a Pennsylvania State University-Brandywine professor thinks college faculty need to do more to undermine their students' belief in "meritocracy" and the value of "hard work" (link). Her view is that meritocracy entrenches white power and privilege. See “Working Hard” Is A White Lie, According To Penn State-Brandywine Professor (link to article). The two articles both come from what some would call right-wing websites. I personally found the rhetoric to be conclusory, and not likely to persuade many people outside the Internet echo chamber. Thus, I visited Ms. Putnam's website (link to main website) and associated blog (link to blog). I will post a few excerpts , and keep them brief enough to stay within posting rules. Excerpts:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Angela Putnam
They believe that if they don’t think racist thoughts, or say racist things, or commit racist actions, then they must not be racist....In my own work, I define racism as a system of subjugation and oppression that is pervasive throughout U.S. structures and institutions, and that works to privilege some people based on perceived group membership.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Angela Putnam
However, I must also make clear that I do believe that those of us with more privilege—those whose invisible knapsacks are bursting at the seams with privilege (thank you, Peggy McIntosh, for that invaluable analogy)—bear even more of the brunt because our privilege allows us access to resources and connections that those with less privilege do not often have at their disposal.
An abstract from one of her seminars (link) states "Three ideological discourses emerged before, during, and after the seminar – Liberal Pluralism, Meritocracy, and “Reverse Racism.”"
It is quite difficult for any institution with academic rigor and selective admissions to be other than a meritocracy. That is just common sense. However, not all professors exercise common sense or even coherence. As much as I criticize right-wing websites, I find the so-called "work" of Angela Putnam to border on incoherence. She argues that "every white person—no matter how rich or poor, old or young, educated or uneducated, can and should step up and work toward dismantling systemic racism and fight for equity and social justice." She gives no suggestion as to how that "dismantling" would occur.
Other professors even argue that white civility towards blacks is somehow racist. Two professors at University of Northern Iowa, C. Kyle Rudick and Kathryn B. Golsan "say classroom 'civility' promotes 'white racial power'" (link) & (link to paywalled article).
Perhaps their answer is in a less restrained, even violent and/or chaotic academic environment that prevails in many schools and much of society. I actually believe that the merit system is time proven, works and benefits all.
If it's a lunacy, it probably came from a college. These self-contained echo chambers hear the same stuff over and over again and once in a while a little bit of it leaks out, for our amusement. It's embarrassing that colleges have sunk to this level.
Only people who don't work, who have no experience with work, could imagine, much less believe, something like this.
If it's a lunacy, it probably came from a college. These self-contained echo chambers hear the same stuff over and over again and once in a while a little bit of it leaks out, for our amusement. It's embarrassing that colleges have sunk to this level.
Only people who don't work, who have no experience with work, could imagine, much less believe, something like this.
You're one step ahead of me. I don't understand the essay(s).
Your (job/academic) Performance is the best metric to evaluate success. It has nothing to do with race and to claim it as being so you are just making excuses for your personal shortcomings.
I would say that a meritocracy favors those who understand and master the metrics of merit evaluation, and are viewed as favorable by the evaluator. Meritocracy has a lot of promising advantages, but it can also have its downsides. For instance, it can be rather myopic, can create a number of blindspots, and limit innovation based on a narrow breadth of backgrounds and experiences.
My wife was representing a university that was being sued by one of its professors for religious discrimination. He felt that it was his turn to be Chair of the department because he felt that he was the most accomplished and that people of other religious groups conspired against him (a whole can of worms there). However, the school did not view the position based on a meritocracy but on an evaluation of the best individual for the position. In the role, the individual would have to be respected and have a good working relationship with the faculty, be a good spokesperson, be a good fundraiser, and a liaison to the dean. This guy was none of these, but he was a very smart individual who was very good in his field. He lost his case and my wife won $2K for the university for proving that the plaintiff and his attorney lied about "top secret" status the university-issued laptop to conceal evidence. My brother-in-law is a federal agent and laughed at the idea that a professor could walk around with a "top secret" device. Anyways, just because someone achieved high marks does not make them the best candidate for a position and I don't believe any institution promises to be a meritocracy.
Other professors even argue that white civility towards blacks is somehow racist. Two professors at University of Northern Iowa, C. Kyle Rudick and Kathryn B. Golsan "say classroom 'civility' promotes 'white racial power'" (link) & (link to paywalled article).
Perhaps their answer is in a less restrained, even violent and/or chaotic academic environment that prevails in many schools and much of society. I actually believe that the merit system is time proven, works and benefits all.
"Other professors even argue that white civility towards blacks is somehow racist"
What the heck is "white civility"?
Either minority groups want in or out. If they want in they're welcome and we're here to help them. If they want out, they better be self-sufficient. Minorities don't get to be "sort-of" in and stir and break the pot.
Oh, puhleeze. I grew up in a broken home, was made fun of for being poor and for my ethnic last name, was abused and all out told I was a piece of s**t by my mother as well as classmates, and have battled mental illness for the past thirty years.
Let me tell you something, lady. (and I am referring to the professor here) I am EXTREMELY hard to offend. But the biggest insult to me is for someone to assume that people like me need to be infantilized and coddled. Yes, life has been hard. But you want to know what? In 2006, I was accepted into MENSA. Six years ago I bought my own house as a single female. And at work, right now, I am FLYING. It feels GOOD to win.
Privilege? When I was a kid I had to choose between clothes and food. Eff you, lady.
As a former college teacher I am in favor of a "meritocracy." I was just starting out in my profession in the sciences when the Equal Opportunity laws were passed, and I must admit that I didn't think highly of the idea. It seemed to me that EEO rules placed me in a position where my colleagues might question my attainments and write me off a token woman in the sciences who got her job to fill some quota and not because of my own hard work. I did NOT have it easy and I worked my way thru college as well as getting a scholarship that paid for my tuition.
My family was made up of Kentucky hillbillies who brewed shine and worked as small farmers and sometimes in the coal mines. NOT people you'd vote for as "most likely to succeed." However, my parents and grandparents were huge believers in getting as good an education as possible in order to climb out of the trap of poverty and (sometimes) despair. My cousins and I all got college degrees and one of my cousins became the first woman president of a major university; while my Dad would tell me tales of unhooking the family mule from its plow and riding it over to the nearby Eastern Kentucky University to attend classes.
However, my first "real" job made me rethink some of my views on meritocracy. I got a position at a college that offered free tuition to Native Americans. Some of those kids came into college straight off some sand scoured sheep ranch in the middle of nowhere, and I will always remember how completely lost some of them looked and indeed were. They WANTED a college degree but all too often the schools on the Rez simply didn't prepare them to do college level work. The same is true of public schools on the wrong side of the tracks in some urban area - especially in neighborhoods that are made up of racial minorities.
I had one "prize student" whom I really tried to encourage - even gave him a key to my office so that he could escape all the commotion going on at home and just have a quiet place to study. He got his degree in chemistry through much hard work, but was denied admittance to the PhD program at the University of Colorado because the faculty there decided that our small college out here in "Indian Country" wasn't rigorous enough and that he'd probably just would drop out.
OOOH! I wanted to go give the chemistry faculty at CU a piece of my mind to their very faces. That kid knew nothing but hard work and somehow maintaining an A average against all odds. He would have been an outstanding PhD candidate and scientist. Well, it was CU's loss. He was eventually admitted into the science program of another university and graduated with flying colors.
That kid deserved a break and when he finally got one, he made the most of it.
I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't hurt to give a person a hand UP, rather than a hand OUT. Too many people confuse these two things in their thinking.
As for the rest of what that woman was espousing, it sounds hopelessly PC to me. The middle road is always preferential to riding in on a high horse. Just MHO.
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