Wagoner Johnson speaks out on mixed messaging in academe

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and uprisings over police brutality, the academy is firing off statements, from individual faculty members to the university level, in support of Black Lives Matter and social and racial justice. Momentum for change is building.

What also needs to change is institutional mixed messaging, as well as the overtaxing of certain faculty and staff members. We must turn our attention to inclusion, which implies some understanding of additional burdens and systemic and sustained biases underrepresented groups face, especially those of color. It is clear that even those of us who have honest and sincere intentions do not understand the whole story.

Read the entire Op-Ed, published June 30 in Inside Higher Ed, here.