#Black justice league struggle session free#

Prominent signers of the letter included Dr. It was signed by more than 300 faculty members. The letter called on the university to take “immediate concrete and material steps to openly and publicly acknowledge the way that anti-Black racism, and racism of any stripe, continue to thrive on its campus,” and offered 48 proposals for reform. The first sentence declared: “Anti-Blackness is foundational to America.” The saga began with an open letter to Princeton’s leadership on Independence Day in 2020, when protests over the police killing of George Floyd and demands for racial justice were rippling across the country. Katz was being persecuted, “It sounds like someone is positioning himself to play a certain role in the current iteration of the culture wars,” Dr.

#Black justice league struggle session free#

Eisgruber in support of free speech.Īs to the notion that Dr. Katz’s language, said attributing his troubles to his speech was “a bad faith argument” that was “completely inconsistent” with past statements by Mr. Glaude Jr., the chair of African American studies and a critic of Dr. George, the director of the university’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.Įddie S. He has defended other controversial speech, including skepticism toward transgender identity by another professor, Robert P. The university adopted the “Chicago Principles,” a commitment to free speech - even if it is offensive - that was formulated at the University of Chicago. Eisgruber, has cultivated a reputation as a defender of free speech. The situation is complicated by the fact that Princeton’s president, Christopher L. “Is this the world we want to live in, where you express an opinion that other people don’t like, and suddenly your personal life is turned inside out, looking for evidence to destroy you?” Ms. Recent Issues on America’s College Campuses And the potential firing has only fueled the controversy - with dividing lines between those who see it as thinly disguised retaliation for offensive speech, and those who believe that the furor over his remarks about race incidentally exposed additional troubling behavior. Many students were already furious about his Quillette article. That document became the basis for the president’s recommendation. “I have considered Professor Katz’s claim and have determined that the current political climate of the university, whether perceived or real, is not germane to the case, nor does it play a role in my recommendation,” Dr. Katz’s contention that there was a “direct line” from the Quillette article to being investigated for misconduct. 30, 2021, the dean detailed reasons for dismissing Dr. “In our view, this is the culmination of the witch hunt that began days after Professor Katz published an article in Quillette that led people to call for his termination,” Ms. But his lawyer, Samantha Harris, said she was expecting the trustees to fire him. Michael Hotchkiss, a spokesman for Princeton, said the university “generally does not comment on personnel matters.”ĭr. His job is at stake for what a university report says was his failure to be totally forthcoming about a sexual relationship with a student 15 years ago that he has already been punished for. Katz, according to a May 10 letter from the president to the chair of the trustees.īut the professor, who is tenured, is not facing dismissal for his speech.

In the latest fallout from that debate, Princeton’s president has recommended dismissing Dr.

And they sent up a flare that led to scrutiny of other aspects of his life, including his conduct with female students. The remarks in Quillette made him a lightning rod in the campus free speech debate, reviled by some who thought what he said was racist, and lionized by others who defended his right to say it. In July 2020, as social justice protests roiled the nation, Joshua Katz, a Princeton classics professor, wrote in a small influential journal that some faculty proposals to combat racism at Princeton would foment “civil war on campus,” and denounced a student group, the Black Justice League, as “a small local terrorist organization” because of its tactics in pushing for institutional changes.