First Person

Celebrated, Not Just Tolerated

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By Kenneth Howard

After I received my Ph.D. in economics, I had the same concerns that many have articulated on this site about finding a job -- location, salary, tenure-track status.

But I also had another less-tangible concern about each place where I applied: What would the environment be like on the campus and in the local area for African Americans? It was hard to explain what I was looking for; it was more something that I felt.

I ended up accepting a job at a large flagship public university in the South. The institution, the city, and the state had a reputation historically for being unfriendly to African Americans. When I informed my graduate-school friends that I had accepted the job there most responded with a shocked, "You're going where?!"

At the time I was so concerned about having a tenure-track position with a good salary and benefits that I would have gone to the moon.

Before I arrived, my new department had never had a person of color on its faculty. But once on the campus, whatever anxiety I felt about that began to ebb. The working environment was excellent. My colleagues were very supportive of my research interests and I ended up writing several papers with them over the years. I can honestly say that I would not have been nearly as successful professionally without their support. They seemed to see me as a valued member of the department -- with the added bonus that I brought some diversity to the faculty.

I must admit that I often bristled at the mention of the word diversity because I always felt that it took attention away from the fact that I had just as many publications, grants, and teaching accolades as my white counterparts. I never really saw any difference in having me teach classes in the department rather than a white professor since the students never responded differently to either of us. Supply curves in economics still slope upward regardless of who is doing the instructing.

My colleagues, however, argued that I did add something different to the mix. They said I was a role model for our African-American student body (which was very large for a public university that was not a historically black institution). I couldn't see that, and never have. The African-American students seemed to view me as just another teacher who taught courses that were boring.

For a long while, I didn't embrace the concept of diversity at all. It wasn't until I had been at the institution for about four years that I began to realize what extra value that I might be adding.

A former student, who is white, returned to campus and had a chat with me. He said that he had grown up in the state and had been surrounded by African-Americans his entire life. He had only encountered them as menial laborers or in service fields and generally disregarded them. It wasn't until he took my class that he met an African-American in a position of authority, and he had been impressed with my competence and professionalism in the classroom.

Now, as a member of the corporate world, he was being allowed to make recommendations about summer interns at his firm and he found himself being an advocate for diversifying the intern corps. He had started to seriously regard others whom he had previously overlooked because of their race.

I had no idea that any of that was happening when the young man was in my class. But I'm glad that it did.

Because of that conversation, and a few subsequent ones of that nature, I can now see the value in a diversified faculty, although I'm still unsure about the role-model thing.

So I had landed in a good department with colleagues who supported me. I went on to win a teaching award and tenure. But I was miserable living in the small Southern town where the university is located, even though the racial tensions that I had feared never materialized.

There was no professional community to speak of in the town. And there was just nothing to do there.

It was then that I decided to look for a new employer. Those same friends who questioned my decision to take the position in the first place now questioned why I would leave a place that clearly valued my contributions. But my personal life was lacking too much to ignore.

So I interviewed with a large urban university in the South. The city where it is located is known for its vibrant and growing African-American community. The department there seemed impressed with my scholarly record. It was another good fit, even though this department, too, had never had a person of color on its faculty. It made me an offer and I took it.

It always takes a while to adjust to a new job. I had an established record of success. I just needed a place to operate. But I soon realized that my adjustment wasn't going so well.

Upon arrival I set about keeping my research going and teaching good classes, but it seemed that there was something missing -- not in my personal life this time, but in my professional life on the campus.

While I had informal chats with my new colleagues, I could best describe them as indifferent and rather cool. I finally realized that although they respected my research record, the idea that diversifying the faculty would be an improvement was not universally accepted among them. After all, the city has one of the highest populations of African Americans in the country. They saw people like me every day. The racial makeup of classes could easily be one-third African-American. Student performance in general was not that great on the campus and African-American performance lagged further. It seemed sort of expected.

Maybe my colleagues had become accustomed to a certain form of interaction with others (particularly African-Americans) at the institution and in the city, and didn't see the value I could add beyond my publications. Our interactions never improved and made the working environment tense. Other things happened regarding salaries and resources that added to the tension.

Despite it all, I was able to keep working and producing, but I kept going back to something that my former dean had told me when I left: "Go where you're celebrated. Not tolerated."

Although I love the city, I've decided that I've had enough of the chilly treatment and I'm heading back to my first institution. My colleagues there are extremely happy to have me back and I'm excited about going back.

Things won't be the same. I've decided that I'll live in a much larger city about 60 miles from the campus and commute to work. I hope it works.