Hawaii Prof To White Guys: ‘Get Out Of The Way’
UPDATED: An African-American female math professor makes a provocative point about the over-representation of white males in academia. UH president defends freedom听of expression.
A University of Hawaii faculty member is causing a stir in conservative media circles by suggesting that white men need to quit their jobs to make room for minorities and women.
Piper Harron, a temporary assistant professor in mathematics at UH Manoa, is African-American.
In a May 11 blog post,听Harron expressed frustration at the lack of minority and female representation in the work place, in particular academia.
鈥淣ot to alarm you, but I probably want you to quit your job, or at least take a demotion,鈥 Harron wrote in the post, titled “.” 鈥淪tatistically speaking, you are probably taking up room that should go to someone else. If you are a white cis man (meaning you identify as male and you were assigned male at birth) you almost certainly should resign from your position of power.鈥
Harron continues:
鈥淭hat鈥檚 right, please quit. Too difficult? Well, as a first step, at least get off your hiring committee, your curriculum committee, and make sure you鈥檙e replaced by a woman of color or trans person. Don鈥檛 have any in your department? HOW SHOCKING.鈥
At least five conservative websites are taking听issue with Harron鈥檚 argument.
An article in The Daily Wire titled , describes Harron鈥檚 argument as 鈥渁 new racist equation she wants to promote: white + man + job = her order for white males to quit or be demoted.鈥
Similar articles are posted on , and , the latter of which characterized Harron鈥檚 blog as a 鈥渂izarre rant.鈥
Another conservative website, , also posted an听article and included this comment: 鈥淚n a now-deleted post on social media that was uncovered by Campus Reform, Harron hit back against those who called her racist and sexist for her blog post, telling them to stop commenting on her post if they find her arguments to be 鈥榯rash.鈥欌
Inquiries to Harron were not returned Friday.
The UH Manoa Department of Mathematics referred media calls to UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl, who directed Civil Beat to website听where UH听President David Lassner defended the right of expression in a message delivered to faculty and staff systemwide:
“Some of you may have heard about a personal post by of one of our faculty members in a blog, managed by a major national professional association, that has received media attention. As a reminder, the opinions of individual faculty members exercising their free speech rights on open blogs do not necessarily represent the positions of the University of Hawaii.
“In addition, as I have repeatedly affirmed, , the university stands firmly committed to providing a safe and inclusive work and learning environment, free of discrimination and intolerance.
“We are also committed to the protection of constitutional rights of free expression and to diversity, including diversity of opinion. These commitments are stated plainly in our policies, including our employment policies, and have been longstanding and deeply held. I call on the entire UH community to help us all fulfill these commitments.”
Craig Bennett, a UH Manoa student currently on leave, is upset about Harron鈥檚 blog.
鈥淐ould you imagine if a white male advocated the removal of all Jews or all blacks from campus yet this type of extreme bigotry is听tolerated against whites as if civil rights only applies to certain groups. Should we all not be treated equally and given the same rights?鈥 he said in an email to local media early Friday morning. 鈥淎mazing how it falls under听鈥榓cademic freedom鈥 when a black (woman) spews this extreme bigotry yet everyone knows if a straight white male said anything听close to that they would be rightfully fired.鈥
‘A Provocation To Think’
Harron holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University.
At the conclusion of “Get Out The Way,” she explains that she is trying to get white men to think differently in order to understand people like her as well as how American society favors white males.
鈥淭his is not about shame or guilt. Those things are useless. This is about shifting perspective. I know you鈥檙e not going to quit your job, but I want you to understand that you should. And to understand that by keeping your job and your other unearned privileges, you are running a continued debt to marginalized people and you should always be seeking ways to pay us back.鈥
She ends her article this way: 鈥淣ot to alarm you, but statistically speaking you are the problem. Your very presence. I can鈥檛 tell you what is the best strategy for you to stop blocking my path. I can just ask that you please get out of my way.鈥
Adriana Salerno, editor in chief of the the American Mathematical Society鈥檚 where Harron presented her views, on Thursday posted, 鈥淪ince last Friday, this post has been getting lots of comments, some of which are very inappropriate.鈥
That prompted Salerno to offer an explanation for Harron鈥檚 article:
鈥淭his is a blog post, an opinion piece, and a provocation to think. As Piper says, it is about 鈥榮hifting perspective鈥. It is not being written by a university president, nor is it something we are acting upon. We are not actually firing anyone. A common argumentation device is to take something to the extreme to really help us do the shifting (and often with things regarding race and gender, this is an effective device, albeit upsetting for some). This also does not necessarily represent the opinions of the AMS and its members, it represents our point of view.鈥
According to , Harron鈥檚 blog, her interests are 鈥Calculus II, intersectional radical feminism, Number Theory, anti-racism, etc.鈥
She states on that blog, 鈥淢y view of mathematics is that it is an absolute mess which actively pushes out the sort of people who might make it better. I have no patience for genius pretenders. I want to empower the people.鈥
Harron also posts that outlines her academic and life experiences. Many of her views are similar to the “Get Out听The Way” blog.
For instance, listing her bachelors听cum laude in Romance Languages from New York University, she says, 鈥渟urvived external and internalized misogyny鈥 and 鈥渟urvived external and internalized racism.鈥
In another post, Harron responds to comments on an article she posted .
White men ask me, but what are the solutions?听 What can we do?
When a black woman centers herself and demands equal access, it is nothing short of revolutionary.
What you can do to change math? Make. Space. For. Me.
She also describes the difficulties in a woman of color obtaining tenure at 鈥渁 top research institution 鈥 if I wasn鈥檛 playing by their rules.鈥
Now, you want me to tell you what needs to change? I don鈥檛 know! Whatever it is that makes you look at me and think, well, but do we really know whether she鈥檇 be worth it? Is it your sexism? Is it your racism? Is it your math hierarchies? That鈥檚 not really for me to say.
All I can say is that I will be on the job market. And many women and people of color and other marginalized people will be on the job market, if they make it that far. The system is biased against us.
Fight it.
Half Of UH Faculty Is White
In the fall of 2016, 51.8听percent of faculty at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the flagship campus of the UH system, were white, 听from the University of Hawaii Institutional Research and Analysis Office.
About 42.7听percent of UH Manoa faculty were Asian or Pacific Islander and听1.4 percent were black or African-American.
The National Center of Education Statistics听听for听full-time faculty at degree-granting postsecondary institutions: 43 percent white males, 35 percent white females, 3 percent black males, 3 percent black females, 2 percent Hispanic males, 2 percent Hispanic females, 6 percent Asian/Pacific Islander males and 4 percent Asian-Pacific Islander females.
Meantime, the听same UH data shows 55.1 percent of the faculty at UH Manoa is male and 44.9 percent are female.听
The same semester, the majority of students were Asian or Pacific Islander: 10,368 out of 18,056 total students at the UH Manoa campus. The student body was also about 2,300 more female students than male.听
Controversial remarks about race by UH professors and in local society are not unusual.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, for example, has written about .
Natanya Friedheim contributed to this article.
