Professor Accuses University of Rhode Island of Jim Crow Racism - President Calls Attacks Defamatory
Sunday, December 13, 2020
A professor at the University of Rhode Island is accusing the school of “Jim Crow” racism -- and officials are calling his statements "unwarranted, unsubstantiated, and defamatory personal attacks."
GoLocal obtained a series of emails showing URI Professor Louis Fosu asking school officials to meet with students in his course "Topics in Political Science: Examining Institutional Power, Checks & Balances, and Advocacy for a More Equitable Society" regarding "complaints and demands" as presented in a twenty-one-page Declaration of Diversity.
The report, signed by six student "trustees" of the Diversity Think Tank at URI and Fosu in his role as Executive Director, asserts that there has been a "deliberate and racist demonizing exclusion of highly qualified African-Americans/Blacks, Latinos/Hispanics and Native Americans from positions of senior leadership and other positions throughout out the university."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFosu, who has a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, M.B.A. from Pace University, and B.A. from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, came to URI in 2019, after having served as a special adviser to U.S. and African government officials.
"Diversity at URI [is] an abysmal state of de facto Jim Crow racism," states the report, which says, “In summary, to end 128 years of all-white supremacy at URI, which is self-evident hiring racist policies at our Rhode Island university, we demand that the next President of the University of Rhode Island must be an African-American with a lineage to slavery. “
In May, URI announced President Davis Dooley will be retiring in June 2021.
Dooley Fires Back
Following Fosu's December 6 request for a meeting between his class with Provost and VP and Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald DeHayes, Fosu received the following response from DeHayes -- which was co-signed by Dooley.
Dear Professor Fosu:
Normally we would be pleased to meet with any class to learn directly from students about the details of their class projects. In this case, however, it is clear that the document that you refer to as the Declaration of Diversity was written by you and represents your opinions being imposed on students and others.
The document includes numerous inaccurate statements as well as unwarranted, unsubstantiated, and defamatory personal attacks on several members of the URI community. Furthermore, the document also causes unwarranted damage to the good name and reputation of the University. We cannot in any way condone such overt attacks and your efforts to demonize members of our community with whom you may have disagreements. In our view, the document that you have prepared is neither well-researched nor effective advocacy for the critically important efforts needed to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at URI.
For the reasons we have noted, we are not willing [to] participate in this exercise, which appears to be designed primarily to support your platform rather than student learning. Finally, we are deeply disappointed that you have put our students in a position of having to promote and/or defend your personal agenda.
Fosu Challenges Dooley
Fosu the next day on December 8 responded to DeHayes and Dooley -- and CC'd the URI Board of Trustees.
"You can dislike me for exposing offensive racial prejudice at URI, but you cannot deny embedded truth. Advocates do not need to be loved by those who deny racism. For a moment, let’s focus on URI’s excellence in research," writes Fosu.
"Walk out of your office door Provost DeHayes – turn right and walk to the end of your hallway. Now begin walking into every office in Green Hall and let me know if you or any of the Vice Provosts are African-American? ZERO. Then check President Dooley’s office, is the President or any of his Vice Presidents African-American? ZERO," adds Fosu.
"Then move to your deans—how many are African-American with a lineage to slavery? ZERO. Then you begin to see that same systemically racist pattern reflected in nearly all URI departments—we have a lot of evidence to present that is deeply disappointing—because I thought URI was better than this. The emails are real, the statistics are real and my experiences of observed racism at URI are real—we have a lot more to show and tell the world," said Fosu.
On Saturday, Foso provided the additional statement to GoLocal.
"The denials of glaring overt racism here at URI is to protect the status quo for our all-white senior leadership," said Fosu. "Our URI leadership has failed to increase diversity by utilizing deliberate institutional racist hiring policies that offensively discriminate against African Americans and other marginalized groups."
"The final straw was when an extremely erudite candidate, Dr. Harry Alston, walked on campus and his glowing knowledge during his presentation and Q&A reminded me of my Georgetown Law professor Charles Lawrence III," Fosu continued. "When Dr. Harry Alston, with his high-level expertise and knowledge, was rejected by URI for a diversity job, then I knew the URI hiring system was rotten and it was no accident that there are ZERO African Americans in Senior Leadership Positions."
"Imagine if W. E. B. Du Bois walked into URI to apply for a faculty job as a professor and he was told Dr, Du Bois you are not qualified – that was how absurd denying the job to Dr. Harry Alston was," he added. "I had to move into action immediately to expose our systemically racist hiring practices at URI."
URI has not responded to request for comment.
Updated Sunday 6:48 AM
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