I'm still waiting to hear a legitimate microaggression that is an example of INSTITUTIONAL racism. There were some hypotheticals earlier but so far no one here has really said what EXACTLY has happened in real life to warrant all this outrage
Okay so I know we're a little past this but I just made an account literally because I saw honest attempts at conversation and examples among all the trigger finger bull**** in this thread. Full disclosure, I'm doing a prelim year at YSM so I like to believe I see the situation both as a stakeholder but also as a passerby as well.
From what I hear from my undergrad mentees (I am a "grad affiliate" at a residential college) and have read from the YDN, there is a real concern that Yale (and other similar universities) is pretty terrible at retaining diverse faculty, supporting departments that focus on topics related to diversity and race (e.g., cultural studies in particular), and supporting low-income/minority students in their educational/social lives.
There have been a couple of highly publicized (in the YDN, that is) faculty departures in the past couple of years, especially in African American studies, women's/gender studies, and the language departments. Some of these were standard tenure denials while others were like the Asian anthro prof who moved after being promised much more support and grant money there that Yale just wouldn't give her.
On top of this, student demands for more Asian/African-American courses and research opportunities have been ignored while the University continues to pour time and money into the more traditional "WASP-y" areas of study like Western history, philosophy, literature (e.g., the monstrous history department at Yale only has 1 full-time professor who focuses on modern Asian studies despite annual op-eds from students asking for more).
There have been a couple of very prominent black scholars/poets at Yale's large departments of English/philosophy who were denied tenure for inexplicable reasons and subsequently quickly picked up by rival R1 institutions.
At the medical school more specifically, there was a sexual harassment scandal last year around the time I interviewed where a tenured white male cardiologist had a Bill Cosby-like storm of accusations alleged decades of misconduct, but he kept his position and the YSM Dean said he supported the doc completely because of his service to the University and had no reason to doubt him or fire him as such, much to the anger of many students, females, and minorities who do not feel that the school supports them in certain ways that it purports to.
Last year, the cultural centers had many problems with administration and directors who weren't supportive of the center's activities and students but it took the College a long time and many screeching complaints to find them better directors and start restructuring the centers.
One of my mentees is a premed history major and said that until a couple of hears ago, the history undergrad major required 2 courses each in the areas of "the Americas, Europe, and
the rest of the world." After years of faculty and student complaints that this perpetuates a Western-centric study of the field and marginalizes the study of non-Western histories, the requirement is now worded as "Asia, Middle East, Oceania." One might argue that this is one of those useless words mincing PC instances that doesn't matter in the face of larger issues, but I think it's a meaningful change.
Now, any of these hiring stories can simply be explained by a "oh, faculty hiring is more complicated than that," and certainly, it is. It seems that it's the
trend though that people are pissed about. The trend, so goes the argument, says something about the decisionmakers and underlying discrimination of who gets to stay/what subjects should be focused on in the curriculum.
These and other similar anecdotes are common themes in the YDN and rather prominent at other top-tier universities as well. From what I understand, these are what the Halloween email (and overtly racist remarks about a "white blonde girls only" party at a frat the same week)
reminded students of. I've been to the protests on campus and listened to what students were complaining about, and it is this
perceived history of institutional discrimination/racism that students are rebelling against. Yes, the Master thing got out of hand and the behavior in that YouTube video is truly unacceptable. But if you've been on campus listening (or trying to listen as much you can post-call shift...), the conversations taking place are very much related to the examples I've given and have been rather civil. The MS3s I've spoken to on service are not fans of the med student activists; apparently most of the school doesn't care for it but people are dragged to the protests by their friends and yada yada yada.
Just some perspective from my first-hand observations on campus over the past couple of weeks. This generation of kids has their fair share of cry babies and useless social justice warriors crying out for stupid **** and all, but the general perception of students on campus is that there are real problems to be dealt with and there are a couple of good ideas circulating on how to deal with them. I've yet to read a news coverage story that fairly represents the real situation. It's all twisted into some BS about free speech...I don't think they're trying to restrict free speech. They're just saying that so and so speech defends the perception that this institution wasn't made for anyone but white males and calling it out.
Again, I say all this as a rather neutral observant. I don't know much more about the details but felt the need to speak up regarding the examples of institutional discrimination/racism and some perspective of what's happening around Yale. I can try to answer questions if anyone cares lol idk? Maybe when I'm off or another slow call shift.
