Editorial: Nikole Hannah-Jones -- Take the UNC job
Thursday, May 27, 2021 -- Don't let the ideologues win. Take the job to be the next Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at UNC. Don't let the legislative leadership and their minions show they've wrested control of a nation-leading system of higher education that's taken a century to build. Take the job. Teach your students to identify facts, understand complicated nuance and to have the skills to be independent thinkers.
Posted — UpdatedTwo important things need to happen, quickly, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
2. The university’s board of trustees MUST go on the record and vote on her tenure request – which has been routine for others in that job. No credible board would dodge their duty.
As is evident from the outpouring of support from the UNC faculty, not to mention hundreds of academic leaders nationwide, Hannah-Jones will be welcomed as a member of the academic community.
Hannah-Jones has other offers for professorships from the nation’s top academic posts. Her failure to join the UNC faculty will be Chapel Hill’s loss and the others’ gain. The already stained reputation of UNC, from a variety of administrative missteps over the last decade, will make it indelible.
She cannot let the ideologues win. She needs to be UNC’s next Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.
She cannot let the legislative leadership -- who directly and indirectly hold power to name campus trustees -- and their minions show they’ve wrested control of a nation-leading system of higher education that’s taken a century to build.
In a UNC classroom she will show those who want to silence her,really are seeking a system of higher indoctrination – not higher education. Every day those seeking to close the minds of those searching for knowledge at UNC will look and see in Hannah-Jones someone who -- regardless of who the students are, where they come from or their personal perspective – is devoted to opening minds and welcomes dialogue from diverse points of view.
That will be a victory for the University of North Carolina, for academic independence and for Nikole Hannah-Jones. Ideologues and education bureaucrats cannot be allowed to chase her away and give comfort to those who seek to put a limit on academic freedom.
Others previously appointed to the Knight chair at UNC – who similarly to Hannah-Jones didn’t come from an academic background -- were tenured. The late Chuck Stone, a Tuskegee Airman and newspaper columnist was tenured as the Walter Spearman Professor at the school.
Because of a statement in an essay that was part of The New York Times 1619 Project she oversaw, Hannah-Jones has become a lightning rod for ideologues seeking to abridge teachings about slavery, segregation and racism in schools.
If anything, this is testament to her openness in contrast to the ideological rigidness of her detractors.
Hannah-Jones cannot let the detractors keep her from taking the job.
We urge her to be even more determined to demonstrate her skill to impart the best lessons of open inquiry. And, just as significantly, be a living reminder of someone who exposed the subtlety and lingering legacy of systemic bias in American life.
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