“The Messy Reality of Leaving”
Chanequa. Love her name, love her stuff, love her honesty; brace yourself —-
EXCERPT:
Sometimes we are simply the convenient scapegoat for other people’s feelings. Eventually, I would realize that I was one of five faculty leaving a 40-member department that academic year.
The others were White men (including one who was also making an intra-institutional move) and two senior White women who had long established themselves as leaders in the field. The department could not lash out at them without suffering some consequences.
As a Black woman and the most junior member of the faculty, I bore the brunt of the department’s anger at five people. It was brutal. Their retaliation ultimately resulted in me being black-balled and losing the grant altogether. It took more than a decade to recover from the financial impact.
SOURCE:
joescheets 