'You Can't Think Yourself Out of Racism'

Recently an assistant professor of African studies at a Catholic university was preparing to oversee a doctoral student's oral examination when she heard from the theology department, in which she serves as a student adviser and teaches cross-listed courses. The professor was told, two weeks before the exam, that a comparative theologian would sit in on the examination with her. The exam did not go smoothly because of the clearly differing expectations of the two examiners. The episode disturbed the professor, who is Black: "There was a reluctance to see me as a peer," she said, "and a hesitation about my qualifications as a scholar of religion."