Appearance on HBCU Digest After Dark Podcast

Journalist Roland Martin posted a Twitter thread on November 29 about HBCU presidents and their apparent “failure” to pitch their faculty to media outlets, specifically his media outlet. Martin’s thread prompted much controversy, and I found myself entering the fray. Martin’s central claim was that he “can’t find” HBCU faculty experts to cover topics (mostly because of the aforementioned HBCU presidents’ failure to pitch directly to him).

I don’t have a dog in any fight involving Martin, per se. However, Martin’s complaint that he “can’t find” HBCU faculty experts echoed for me the same kind of sentiments that I hear white academics express (“We’d love to hire more underrepresented faculty, but we just don’t know where to find them!”). My entry into that Twitter discussion was to call bullshit on it. HBCU Digest found me without much effort on their part because they decided that it was important to them to seek out HBCU scholars. I noted that certainly a national media figure with a full staff at his disposal could find HBCU/underrepresented scholars to share their expertise on a range of topics. If he wanted to. I say the same about my white colleagues.

At any rate, the HBCU Digest After Dark podcast invited me to continue the conversation on today’s episode. The discussion was fruitful, and I look forward to exchanging ideas with the crew again. Here is the link.