I found this article on CNN.com, and thought it really mirrored a lot of issues we were talking about in class. It's crazy that even at the highest levels of education, racial discrimination still exists.

I'm not sure if the reason for his denial of tenure is strictly because of race, but it seems it is definitely an issue.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/06 ... index.html

He must be really convinced that his department head is racist if he is willing to begin a hunger strike over the issue. It is interesting to note, however, that "university administrators... said less than half of junior faculty members are promoted to tenured positions." I think there is a lot more to it than his race, like you mentioned, but it is interesting to think that there still could be prejudices in higher levels of education. James Sherley certainly thinks it isa big enough issue to hold a hunger strike. HOWEVER, if the issue is indeed not about race, then this sort of action is parallel to a four year old having a temper tantrum, thinking that he will get his own way. I definitely think more information is needed on the subject before really drawing a conclusion. It is interesting to think about though.

I would have to agree with Leah about there being much more to it than racism. This is what I think, from just reading this article. I think that racism could be a huge part of it....and that alone should not be happening, but I wonder what else is going on here?

I am not quite sure why he chose a hunger strike to make his point. I would be interested in knowing more to this story. It definitely makes me wonder what schools really are racist and if this is happening in other schools. I have not heard much about schools firing faculty because of race, but then again ....it may not be labeled or called that. This topic seems kind of hidden to me and almost like a secret.

I think this is a terribly misleading and uninformative article. I have no doubts that this man is extremely qualified at what his does (I mean he got a 2.5 million dollar grant for lordys sake), however; he works at MIT where I’m sure EVERY professor is extremely qualified at what they do. Sherley says he is not even doing it to get tenure anymore; he just wants to prove that the department is racist. What? The article mentions that he has been trying to get tenure for the past 2 years and he’s only a 3rd year professor. Therefore, its no surprise he hasn’t got the tenure position because his chances are very slim. It also says that less than half of junior faculty members get promoted to tenure positions. Therefore, there has to be other factors associated with the university denying him tenure. I’m not saying race isn’t a factor in this decision, but it just seems like we would need MUCH MORE information to make an educated decision on this situation. I’m also not surprised to see racism in the upper levels of the education system. Racism is everywhere. Even though diversity should be a large part of an educators experience, that doesn’t mean that some educators aren’t racist. Although, it definitely is a problem that we can work to expel from ourselves as future educators, and one that all educators should especially focus on overcoming.

The thing that gets me is, how is his hunger strike-the fact that he's not eatting- going to change the minds of other esp. the ones who may be racially discriminating?