The recording of the comments was apparently available for students of the class to view for weeks
Professor Sandra Sellers, a professor at Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington DC for 20 years, has been fired after outrageous comments she made stating that her worst students were almost always Black.
She made the comments on a Zoom call with a colleague. Sellers admitted that she has “angst” every semester that the students that receive the lowest grades will be “Blacks”.
In the call she said: “I hate to say this. I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks. Happens almost every semester. And it’s like, oh come on. You get some really good ones, but there are also usually some that are just plain at the bottom. It drives me crazy.”
Her colleague David Batson, who was on the other end of the call, made no remark about the comments, and is (worryingly) only heard replying with a “yeah”. He has been placed on administrative leave.
A clip of the call on Twitter has been viewed over a million times, and the university have taken swift action and fired Sellers. The law school has since said that it is taking “significant steps to ensure that all students in this class are fairly graded without input” from the two teachers.
https://twitter.com/hahmad1996/status/1369808995494543368
William Treanor, the dean of Georgetown Law School, has since released a statement about the incident. He said: “I recognise how hurtful this incident is to members of this class, to the members of the Black community, and to members of our community as a whole. I am committed to taking steps to support students through this and to addressing racism and bias wherever they appear. There is no place for bias in our grading process or anywhere in our community.”
Meanwhile, Sellers has written in a resignation letter that she was “deeply sorry” for her “hurtful and misdirected remarks,” whilst Batson has yet to release a statement.
This sort of story only serves to reinforce the idea that throughout all levels of society, there remain some deeply troubling opinions and attitudes. No matter the intention of the comment or whatever point that Sellers was trying to make, the fact that she felt comfortable making these comments to a colleague is hugely telling in itself.
