Web posted on Tuesday, October 14, 1997

Racism charges met with counter-attack

Prichard plays hard ball with scholars

By Meg Murphy, Varsity Staff

Critics say an inability to understand systemic racism is leading university administrators to perpetuate it rather than reform a faulty system.

This is the sentiment shared by community members offended by administrators' credibility attack launched against two scholars alleging systemic racism exists in university hiring practices.

But U of T president Robert Prichard says it is by no means a departure from professional integrity to publicly critique a scholar's academic record under these circumstances.

"I believe in Dr. Chun's case where he has made all aspects of the matter public, it is appropriate for the university to respond fully to false claims made about the qualifications of other candidates," he said, alluding to Chinese-Canadian Kin Yip Chun, a former U of T seismologist who alleges systemic bias in the physics department's hiring practices.

Out of over 40 full-time U of T physics professors, four are people of colour, including two Chinese and two Indian scholars.

Prichard says he would be willing to discuss law professor April Burey's job search evaluation if she would distribute the rejection letter sent to her by the law dean.

"I understand she herself has declined to make public the careful and detailed response sent to her by [law dean Ronald] Daniels addressing the qualifications of the other applicants," he commented.

Burey, who is black, alleged systemic racism exists in the law faculty's employment practices after a white lawyer was hired to fill a full-time faculty position on race and gender issues.

At the law faculty, all full-time faculty members are white with one recent exception of a black man. Among first-year law students only one is black.

Prichard positively bristles when asked if public discussions of scholars' personal credentials are unbecoming of an institution of higher learning.

"What is unbecoming is unsubstantiated and false allegations or suggestions including those in your newspaper which suggest Dr. Chun was passed over for less qualified candidates. It is not true and I believe the facts must count when allegations of racism are being made," he said.

"To do otherwise is to totally unfairly damage and denigrate the reputations of the successful candidates whether in the case of the physics department or the faculty of law."

Different worlds

Both scholars say administrators do not understand the issue.

"Why are they wasting time on this?" said Burey.

"This is not about me. It is about a system that needs to be changed. To keep the focus on the personal and individual processes is to avoid the point entirely," she added.

"Systemic racism does not mean that all professors hired are underqualified, nor does it pinpoint individual professors," adds Chun, expressing shock at the university's defensive stance.

"You can have systemic racism without any racists. Neither me nor any of my supporters are alleging the department of physics is racist," he said, explaining he is suggesting the physics department hiring practices effectively exclude people of colour. Intent is irrelevant.

Law lesson

The university is practicing an outdated and illegal notion of equality, says Burey. She says administrators are emphasizing formal equality, that people deemed to be alike be treated the same while those deemed unlike be treated differently.

But she warns that this take on equality has historically led to great injustices.

"For example, once Jews were categorized as unlike 'Aryans' then the disparate treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany satisfied formal equality," said Burey, adding this take on equality clearly leads to discrimination.

"So to focus on individual processes and why Dr. Chun is not like the other candidates is so wrong and so illegal," she said, adding Canadian law follows substantive equality, which focuses on the effect of actions.

According to the Supreme Court of Canada, systemic discrimination in an employment context is "discrimination that results from the simple operation of established procedures of recruitment, hiring and promotion, none of which is necessarily designed to promote discrimination.

"The discrimination is then reinforced by the very exclusion of the disadvantaged group because the exclusion fosters the belief, both within and outside the group, that the exclusion is the result of "natural forces," states the Court.

"Everything that Prichard is putting Dr. Chun through is unnecessary," said Burey. "This is about a system not an individual. This is about the effect of the university's employment system, which effectively excludes people of colour.

"This is about a system not about Prichard intentionally being evil or being racist. Human rights are not about assigning intentional blame," said Burey. "They are about redressing wrongs and changing a system that excludes on the basis of race."

Burey says the mere existence of an employment equity policy at U of T is an admission of systemic racism. Such a policy recognizes there is a system in place that excludes on the basis of race and attempts to redress it.

"To point to their established procedures is to continue the systemic discrimination that they know is a problem," said Burey.

Different take

But Prichard says systemic racism in the hiring practices of the University of Toronto has been wiped out.

"I believe in our society at large there has been systemic exclusion and under-representation of racial minorities and as a result to combat this within the university we need equity policies to mitigate and overcome these exclusionary practices," he said.

He points to the university's employment equity policy as excellent in overcoming historical exclusion.

"I do not believe there is systemic racism in the hiring practices at the University of Toronto."

U of T academic board member Selwyn Pieters, who has demanded the president explain the university's handling of these cases, says this all comes down to administrators' inability to understand what is being debated.

"I don't think they understand the issue. I don't think they understand what systemic racism is," he said.

"They are not focusing on the issues. They are getting into personal attacks. Prichard is doing the same thing that he would condemn in others, instead of addressing the issue he is personally attacking scholars' credibility and suitability for the job."