Affirmative Action Hires In Anthro --> Give me a break

Lee D. Baker (LDBAKER@HARVARDA.HARVARD.EDU)
Tue, 7 Jun 1994 13:30:24 EST

I can't believe what I am reading and I simply won't entertain, with a response
, ideas of reverse discrimination in hiring practices in higher ed.
Rest assure you [white] guys,minorities in anthro are not taking your precious
jobs. There were only two or maybe three new PhDs in anthropology this year
who were African American. I was one and know the others. I can speak for my
self at least, I got two interviews in anthro (the rest were Black Studies).
Of those two, the chair of the selection committee new my advisor(so I had
an inside track) and they were fourth rate schools which desperately needed to
diversify their faculty. And,I did not even end up getting those:
My record is stellar, I have published several articles and received post-docs
as a doctoral candidate at both the Smithsonian and Harvard, and my degree was
from Temple. However, I simply could not compete with you guys who have been
out teaching and publishing for several years. Additionally, I did an armchair
dissertation on "The Role of Anthropology in the Social Construction of Race,
1896-1954" Even though it has been nominated for the CGS/UMI Distinguished
Dissertation Award, anthro depts didn't want a freshly minted Ph.D. that
did the history of discipline, but someone to study little brown people.
I understand, I mean I don't expect depts to advertise for a historian of anth
[although they should], Simiarly I recognize the important role fieldwork
plays in an anthropologists'professional growth and development. I too have
conducted feild work, which I have published on, in NW Australia amongst
Aboriginals; however, this not what currently interests me. This is all to say:
us "Minorities" surely do not have a better time at job hunting than
you all .and. there is absolutely no way anyone can construe a declaration of
reverse discrimination in Anthropology because there is simply a handfull of
us completeing Ph.Ds. [Happy ending though: I am currently doing fieldwork
and got a post-doc at Hopkins :) ]
===================================================================
Lee D. Baker, Ph.D. 202 328 7069
National Museum of American History 202 357 2216
1040 AHB MRC 605 LDBAKER@Harvarda.Harvard.edu
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20005