Naomi Schaefer Riley, Chronicle Of Higher Education Blogger, Fired For Calling Black Studies 'Claptrap'

The Chronicle of Higher Education dismissed one of its bloggers after outcry over a blog post she wrote questioning the legitimacy of black studies as an academic discipline.

Naomi Schaefer Riley, a lecturer and author who wrote for the Chronicle's blog, Brainstorm, was let go after readers pushed back on an essay she published last week titled "The Most Persuasive Case For Eliminating Black Studies? Just Read the Dissertations." Riley's essay responded to a sidebar of a story in the Chronicle which profiled several up-and-coming black studies scholars in the process of writing dissertations. Riley looked at the titles of the dissertations -- on subjects like the role of race in housing policy and the history of black midwifery in the United States -- and called them "left-wing victimization claptrap."

Nearly 6,500 people signed a petition calling for her dismissal from the blog. Yesterday, Liz McMillen, the site's editor, wrote a note apologizing for Riley's post, and said that the publication had decided to part ways with the author, who is also an affiliate scholar of the Institute of American Values, a conservative think tank based in New York.

"When we published Naomi Schaefer Riley’s blog posting on Brainstorm last week … several thousand of you spoke out in outrage and disappointment that The Chronicle had published an article that did not conform to the journalistic standards and civil tone that you expect from us," McMillen wrote. "We now agree that Ms. Riley’s blog posting did not meet The Chronicle’s basic editorial standards for reporting and fairness in opinion articles. As a result, we have asked Ms. Riley to leave the Brainstorm blog."

Riley's initial post became the subject of heated debate on the site for both its tone and substance.

Seriously, folks, there are legitimate debates about the problems that plague the black community from high incarceration rates to low graduation rates to high out-of-wedlock birth rates," Riley wrote about the dissertations. "But it’s clear that they’re not happening in black-studies departments. If these young scholars are the future of the discipline, I think they can just as well leave their calendars at 1963 and let some legitimate scholars find solutions to the problems of blacks in America. Solutions that don’t begin and end with blame the white man.

Commenters -- many of whom are themselves academics -- said she was being unfair to the young scholars and the field of black studies by not having read their work before dismissing it in a public forum. Riley responded that she had no interest in reading the dissertations, and that they were too narrowly focused to be widely read or have much academic value.

"Finally, since this is a blog about academia and not journalism, I’ll forgive the commenters for not understanding that it is not my job to read entire dissertations before I write a 500-word piece about them," Riley wrote. "I read some academic publications ... but there are not enough hours in the day or money in the world to get me to read a dissertation on historical black midwifery. In fact, I’d venture to say that fewer than 20 people in the whole world will read it."

But many of the site's commenters noted that very few doctoral dissertations become widely read, and that has little bearing on their academic legitimacy.

"This is true of virtually every dissertation in every field," wrote Paul Heideman, a lecturer at Rutgers University-Newark.  "One might reasonably expect someone who has covered the academy for more than 15 years, been published in every major paper in the country, and written two books to be cognizant of this fact."

Others took issue with her refusal to engage with the work she was criticizing.

"In fact, most of the people … have objected to your post because you dismissed an entire academic field based on the cherry-picked titles of three in-progress dissertations," wrote another commenter. "As you admit, you have not bothered to actually find out any concrete details of the methodology, research, presentation, and so on, of these projects. And, yes, you have a responsibility to check these things out before you lay waste to the validity of a scholarly field, not to mention the careers of three young scholars, in one of the websites most widely read by academics."

But Chester Finn Jr., an education analyst and aide to Ronald Reagan, said that Riley was dismissed for expressing unpopular views. "Vibrancy, it seems, has been replaced by political correctness and intimidation," he wrote.

From our partners

• Modern Day Matchmaker: 10 Ways To Improve Your Marriage While You're Still Single - ESSENCE
• In Hedge Fund Manager's Last Hours Of Freedom, An Attempt At One Last Victim - www.blackenterprise.com
• ‘I Can't Stop Sexting My Ex-Hubby! Am I Cheating?' - www.essence.com

Comments

[40 Winks]

11:22 AM on 04/03/2013

Okay, I read her rant. And that was what it was,a rant. Any notion that she was speaking as an academic was dispelled within the first sentence. Regardless, her blog was nothing less than another angry person.

[40 Winks]

11:15 AM on 04/03/2013

When one believes what they say is true without facts they become wise in their own mind.

[chipsaunders]

09:36 AM on 03/20/2013

I tried to read Naomi Schaefer Riley's diatribe about Black Studies and her case for eliminating them but I stopped after a few paragraphs. The level of condescension was in my view off the charts. She is patronizing and rude to the extreme. She is the academic version of Rush Limbaugh.

[Suzie Easter]

10:49 PM on 06/27/2012

She's married to a black man and they have children.

[ariodante]

11:51 AM on 07/16/2012

and ...?

[chipsaunders]

09:21 AM on 03/20/2013

Which is beside the point. This woman was fired for writing a diatribe based on her own political agenda. Then Chester Finn Jr chimes in with the typical right wing meme of her being a victim. S

[LeftRightCenter]

12:53 PM on 05/28/2012

good. now she can clap her trap, shut.

[Raejeanowl]

12:49 PM on 05/28/2012

Riley had an ideological chainsaw to grind that kicked back and decapitated her.

[SOHOROCKS66]

04:46 PM on 05/28/2012

LMAO! Fav'd for sure!

[Brittany Louis]

08:32 AM on 05/28/2012

It's amazing some of you guys. So a group of people plagued through history with problems caused by others, that were internalized and never properly dealt with rises to become the group with the highest incarceration rate, high rates of stds, unwed pregnancy, heart disease among a dozen other things and you think it's not worth looking into and wondering why there's a huge group of them that don't flourish or change? Often times we can learn alot about a group of people through studying their history. There's many fields where people study other people to learn about them.

Maybe none of you think this makes sense because you don't think black people are worth studying. You don't validate the people, therefore the history means nothing to you.

Also once again, people are not really racist since racism is a structure. People are biased and discriminatory. Both are far more common than finding full on racism these days. That Sheriff in Arizona who harasses latinos is racist. He structured his entire department to harass latino citizens because he feels they don't belong here despite being born here. There IS a subtle difference. The writer here isn't really racist, she's just a bit of a bigot.

[SOHOROCKS66]

09:54 AM on 05/28/2012

Brittanty, if taken to its logical conclusion, Riley's broad generalization, i.e., criticism, of black studies would result in the elimination of the entire field of study. The elimination of black studies would then be attributable to "racism as a structure." Correct?

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, my guess is Riley does not hold the same complete disregard for euro-western studies as she does black studies. So, how does Riley's racially bigoted attitude toward black studies not meet with the definition of a racist?

IMO as per the universally accepted definitions provided below, Riley's attitude and its implications clearly represent bigotry and racism.

1. A racist is someone who believes in the superiority of one race over another, or who acts differently (usually negatively) towards a person or a group of people because of their race. An example would be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, who espouse the superiority of the white race.

2. A bigot is a blinkered, narrow-minded person, usually also very intolerant and unable to see anyone else's point of view. People can be bigoted about things that have nothing to do with race, for example, religion or sexual orientation.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_a_'bigot'_and_a_'racist'#ixzz1wAjA9BkP

[TLKelly]

08:25 AM on 05/28/2012

Ever heard the saying "You have to know where you come from, to know where you are going."?

Why is it that the history of people of African descent is always being negated and silenced in society at large?

Why are institutional power structures so hell bent on erasing our experiences, our struggles, our victimization, and our contributions to society?

And people are quick to say we should just forget and move on. Is anyone telling the Jews to forget the Holocaust? No. Because at the end of the day they are whites who were victimized and compassion and empathy are awarded them because they have melded into the overall white power structure in this country.

I'm inclined to believe that as in slavery, our culture and identity being stripped from us continues as a means to keep African-Americans confused and lost about who we are as a people.

This plays a huge part in our self-esteem as a community. And that esteem is always under attack by institutional racism.

[TLKelly]

08:12 AM on 05/28/2012

Reading many of the comments below, suggesting that Black Studies is not important as a collegiate discipline, is disgusting.

There wouldn't be a need for Black studies if the course of American History and Civil studies wasn't white washed to exclude our stories, contributions, and experiences.

I keep seeing "We should all just be American". Ok so start including ALL of African-American history in regular History courses, not only in higher-education, but k-12 as well.

Our history is not just Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King.

This is hypocrisy at its finest. White people dont want their children to learn our, or Latino history, cause they say its not American. But when we want to learn our own history, that too is un-American.

We have been brainwashed with white history since birth. And white privilege grants the luxury of not having to learn about other cultures in a deep and educational setting, but we have to learn and live white culture everyday of our lives.

[Brittany Louis]

08:36 AM on 05/28/2012

EXACTLY. I spent a solid YEAR in HIgh school at a very expensive prep school studying American History and black people were only featured for a few hundred years. NAtive Americans EVEN LESS. My PARENTS taught me about the Tuskeegee Airmen and the MANY black soldiers who fought in the civil war. If I had learned from a white text book, I'd believe all the slaves just sat back like invalids while people were fighting for them. I'm lucky that I went to a black private school to 8th grade and learned many of these things but a nation that deems anyone but the majorities history not worth learning will be a country of idiots. Lo and Behold we ARE a nation of idiots underperforming globally. Other countries know our own histories better than we do.

[fing ding]

10:38 PM on 05/28/2012

Most Americans probably know more about black history than they know about white history.

A lot of people know about Lewis Latimer but how many know about Joseph Swan?
Many people know about Elijah McCoy but have you heard of John Fitch or Richard Trevithick?

They teach very little of the positives of white history and very little of the negatives of black history except as victims of whites.

[TLKelly]

11:29 PM on 05/28/2012

Your joking right..... and that isn't a question.

[james frankfurth]

06:52 PM on 05/27/2012

Now there are penalties for telling the truth. I think Riley expect that also. Sad end to the USA. Crap instead of substance.

[nutbagger]

12:07 PM on 05/16/2012

Dam, I'm on her side. Enough with the old negro spirituals.

[TLKelly]

09:29 AM on 05/28/2012

And enough of the caucasoid spirituals and history as well if thats the case....

[Stacy Pershall]

08:31 PM on 05/28/2012

I'm interested to know how an entire academic discipline is, in your estimation, an "old negro spiritual."

[JimInHouston]

05:50 PM on 05/15/2012

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education commented very well on this shameful fiasco:

http://thefire.org/article/14471.html

[Christian Cantwell]

07:52 AM on 05/15/2012

Good riddance!!! Criticism of dissertations that she had not read, based on the title only? You know, there's a term that I use for the ignorant that hide between academic certifications. Its called the "educated fool." Its not what she knows, but what she does'nt know that makes her dangerous to the world. No, I will say its what she does not know that she does not know that makes her even more frightening... Move over Michelle Malkin, Gretchen Carlson and Anne Coulter, there will be another rider on the "crazy train." CHOO CHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Joel0903]

04:20 PM on 05/19/2012

No one outside their academic advisers have read the dissertations. That was part of her point - it wasn't a criticism of them writing about the civil rights era - it was a criticism of the level of professionalism in teaching the courses and the lowering of expectations of performance. What I find funny is that she was called a racist over her comments. Actually, I find that hilarious. I'm sure her husband and children don't feel she's racist (in part because he just said so on national tv). What I find hilarious about it is that none of the people decrying her as a racist even bothered to look up her most basic biographical information.

[Christian Cantwell]

06:56 PM on 05/20/2012

Sir, many found her remarks offensive, and yes some have read the dissertations. This was not the first and last time this woman was embroiled in controversy. Her husband and children are the supreme authority on the issue of racism? Are they accredited? Do you know the theory of duality.. Everyone is complicit to some extent. Say, a guy discriminates against others, but has a black friend or two... You know, Thomas Jefferson was a prime example of this, because he had at least 5 children by a slave named Sally Hemings, yet he spoke out about his opposition to the equality of the races, and also  refused to emancipate his own offspring. I call it hypocrisy, but to each his own.. Also, one cant help but remember the Ted Danson debacle when he was dating Whoopi.. Come prepared next time. 

[kirkwood]

06:50 AM on 05/28/2012

@Joe

The point is, this writer didn't even bother to do some research ON the subjects of the students' dissertations before dismissing them as unworthy of her time---I read her column about it, and she just basically blew off the students' field of study and African-Americans studies as a whole---simply because SHE wasn't interested in anything they wrote about---it had nothing to do with the "quality" of anything. Did you even read her piece? You're think as long as she's been writing about higher education,she'd know better than to fling out statements she can't really support with anything other than her own opinion. And,oh BTW, being married to a black person dosen't automatically make you NOT a racist---that's total and complete BS right there. You can STILL be racist as hell mainly because white people own the media!

Also,where do you get off with the racist assumption that there is automatically "a lowering of expectations" when it comes to black college students? That's some bull****---I know from having attended college myself that you have to work damn hard as hell to get a grade,PERIOD,and that goes for EVERYBODY. Writing a dissertation is a requirement in certain fields----it's one step closer to getting a degree, and not everyone can do it. You don't know jack about AA studies, or how damn hard they had to work to put all their dissertations together. So forget you and your racist ignorance!

[jrh582000]

12:48 PM on 05/14/2012

What the Chronicle of Higher Education did was collectively puts its fingers in its ears and said na na na, I can't hear you!

[MrTown3]

12:07 PM on 05/14/2012

Black existence is a battle and her goal is to silence those that disagree with her viewpoint because any line of thinking that deviates from the status quo represents a challenge to the current system of power and essentially becomes a threat...this is why they are always trying to silence and demonize anybody that wants to understand the truth about this country and white society as a whole...

[TLKelly]

07:50 AM on 05/28/2012

Exactly.