Chronicle of Higher Education blogger fired for calling Black Studies 'claptrap'

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Naomi Schaefer Riley, a blogger for The Chronicle of Higher Education, recently parted ways with the site after outrage over an article she wrote last week titled “The Most persuasive Case For Eliminating Black Studies? Just Read the Dissertations.” Roughly 6,500 followers signed a petition demanding Riley’s termination, and yesterday the Chronicle’ s editor released a statement apologizing for her post. The Huffington Post:

The Chronicle of Higher Education dismissed one of its bloggers after outcry over a blog post she wrote questioning the legitimacy of black studies as an academic discipline.

Naomi Schaefer Riley, a lecturer and author who wrote for the Chronicle’s blog, Brainstorm, was let go after readers pushed back on an essay she published last week titled “The Most Persuasive Case For Eliminating Black Studies? Just Read the Dissertations.” Riley’s essay responded to a sidebar of a story in the Chronicle which profiled several up-and-coming black studies scholars in the process of writing dissertations. Riley looked at the titles of the dissertations — on subjects like the role of race in housing policy and the history of black midwifery in the United States — and called them “left-wing victimization claptrap.”

Nearly 6,500 people signed a petition calling for her dismissal from the blog. Yesterday, Liz McMillen, the site’s editor, wrote a note apologizing for Riley’s post, and said that the publication had decided to part ways with the author, who is also an affiliate scholar of the Institute of American Values, a conservative think tank based in New York.

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