Canceled at Georgetown | City Journal
Social justice activists routinely demand that we see race, call out disparities and feel personal shame about them, and commit to improving outcomes for minorities. But William Treanor, dean of the Georgetown University Law Center, has sent a clear message to those who try to answer that call: verbalizing your commitment to social justice won t protect you and may even destroy your career if an angry activist decides to cancel you.
Last month, Georgetown Law adjunct professor Sandra Sellers told a colleague privately on Zoom, I hate to say this I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower [graded] ones are blacks. Some black students, Sellers said, did well, but the overall pattern made her feel bad. Sellers was not aware that her conversation was being recorded and uploaded to the aptly named Panopto software system. If someone had chosen to, he might have clipped her words and posted them to Twitter with the caption: We need more white professors like this, who feel shame about how badly law schools are failing students of color. Thank you, Professor Sellers! Instead, Sellers words were clipped and posted by Georgetown Law student Hassan Ahmad with the caption: .@GeorgetownLaw negotiations professors Sandra Sellers and David Batson being openly racist on a recorded Zoom call. Beyond unacceptable.
That day, without speaking with Sellers, William Treanor condemned her reprehensible statements, which he declared abhorrent. The next day, against his own university s policies, Treanor fired Sellers without an official investigation.
Seems a bit precipitate.