Filed with EEOC
Violation of Affirmative Action Law:
I applied for a job with Murray State University on the 18th of October 1994 teaching African-American literature.
On the 3rd of November 1994, Mr. Q, who identified himself as a member of the English Department at Murray State University, also on the Search Committee, called me at about 10:00am. Mr. Q directly asked if I was a member of the Baha’i Faith, and then said, "as a white male, or I suppose you’re a white male, you’re a white male aren’t you?" I had no recourse but to answer hesitantly "yes" as he waited in silence for my answer. Having achieved the apparent purpose of his phone call, he said, "Affirmative Action will work against you and you already know that." He repeated that statement a few times. At one point he stated the Search Committee would choose any African-American over me who was at least minimally "credentialed," suggesting someone who had my comparable level of education, an ABD in English, but without my major publications in, and experience teaching, African-American literature.
At least twice and maybe a third time, he told me he was impressed with the quality of my edition of Robert Hayden’s Collected Prose (The University of Michigan Press, 1984), which I had sent the English Search Committee in support of my application for a tenure-track position teaching African-American literature. He apparently thought that should mean something to me in lieu of fair and legal handling of my application, without the violation of Affirmative Action guidelines. He stated there was a lot of white racism that needed to be redressed and he was surrounded by it where he was in Kentucky. I told him I had interviewed for several African-American literature jobs and people were always shocked when I walked through the door. I mentioned I had met with this type of reverse discrimination several times before. I pointed out to him that if I were black people would be rallying to help me because I was clearly being discriminated against on the basis of my skin color. I went on to tell him he was confused because Robert Hayden, the most outstanding African-American poet of the last fifty years and former Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, whom I studied under at the University of Michigan and whose Collected Poems (Liveright, 1985) I’ve also edited, would have had unmitigated contempt for my whole reverse discrimination situation as absurd. Mr. Q said he would be an advocate for me on the Search Committee but that the English Department was composed of all whites, and they needed someone else, i.e., of color.
I told Mr. Q I would file a law suit with the EEOC, and later, at the end of our several minute conversation, I said I would think about it and seriously consider filing a lawsuit because I believe this kind of discrimination should be confronted in law out in the open. At one point he identified himself as also a Baha’i and apparently expected me to agree that discrimination against me and my career, and severely affecting my family, was acceptable in order to right the wrongs of the past. I stated to him that secular civil law and the Baha’i religious teachings in my opinion, which emphasize the oneness of humanity and brotherhood, along with the best black writers and thinkers (I thought of Ralph Ellison and Martin Luther King), oppose this kind of illegal discrimination. He said at one point we have to be patient, suggesting Affirmative Action would solve everything with time. I rejected the notion that this type of discrimination against me was justifiable and pointed out well-intentioned liberals can be as racist as extreme blacks or anybody else and suggested again I was the object of discrimination but no one ironically cared about me--someone who was highly qualified for the African-American literature job by his education, by having spent years of his life editing the poems and prose of a leading black poet, and by having taught the work of every major African-American author in American literature. I told him oneness of humanity should take precedence and be the highest value. At some point he had identified himself as a Baha’i, and he started crying and called me brother which I rejected as irrelevant to his violation of my rights to fair and objective evaluation. I said I was a human being and should be considered as such too. He said at one point that I was "embittered" and against Affirmative Action. I pointed out to him that I was not embittered and not against Affirmative Action but appalled that what I, as an individual, had achieved in my career, as well as my basic civil rights, meant nothing in terms of my being fairly evaluated for the job at Murray State University.
I believe Mr. Q violated my civil rights under Affirmative Action law by calling me to determine both my religious affiliation and my race. He directly asked me if I was a white male which left me no recourse but to answer under fear of being disqualified by not cooperating. The information obtained by him was then used either by himself, or also by the Search Committee, to reject my application for the tenure-track position teaching African-American literature at Murray State University, a position for which I am eminently qualified, including by Mr. Q’s own repeated acknowledgement.
I believe I was denied both consideration for hire and then the actual job itself due to my race.
I believe Mr. Q called me from an office phone at Murray State University, and phone records, if not destroyed, should corroborate that fact of my charge. My telephone number is (810) 853-6998.
I have waited nearly six months to file this charge because it is not my wish to damage relations between the races or be misconstrued as a racist myself. Indeed, I have spent the last twenty years of my life attempting to create mutual understanding and respect among all peoples by, among other activities, devoting a year of my life as a childcare worker to underprivileged emotionally impaired children at the Detroit Baptist Children’s Home, editing the writings of Robert Hayden, by teaching in Japan for a year and a half at Gunma University, by teaching for two years in Arizona on the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation, by teaching multicultural and non-Western literature for the last three years, by extensive study of China and five weeks in China last summer on a Fulbright scholarship, and by receiving a National Endowment for the Humanities scholarship for this summer to study the history and culture of India.
Because I am continually confronted with reverse discrimination, due to who I am and to what I have devoted my academic studies, I feel compelled by necessity to confront the repeated injustice of racial discrimination against me.
Frederick Glaysher
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