The Whiteness of Attacks on Black Academics

Abstract

Public attacks on academics – and university involvement in handling these matters – have grown in relevance in recent years. In the social media age, incidents of academic attacks have increased in frequency due to growing public interaction with academics (and vice versa), and public attention to these attacks has increased via the same platforms of digital media. In choosing the term "attack", the author do not aim to equate these incidents with physical violence the likes of sexual attacks on women and femmes, police attacks on demonstrators, or state violence visited upon everyday Black and Brown people, but rather to help identify an experience. Contrastingly, attacks on Black academics have a generative effect: they create vast groups that are closely formed around a collective White identity that is solidified by anti-Black racism. Understanding this effect requires an understanding of the ongoing legacy of White violence in America.