York University Posts Professor Job Opening in Computer Science for ‘Black-Identified’ Candidates
“This opportunity is open to qualified individuals who self-identify as Black peoples of African Descent”
Is anyone well versed in Canadian law? Is this even legal?
This job is listed on the Computing Research Association website:
Black-identified Professorial stream appointment, Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering
The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, York University invites highly qualified candidates in any field of computer science related to the Department’s activities to apply for a professorial stream tenured or tenure-track appointment at an open rank – Assistant, Associate or Full Professor level, depending on experience – to commence July 1, 2021. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. All York University positions are subject to budgetary approval.
This opportunity is open to qualified individuals who self-identify as Black peoples of African Descent (for example Africans and African heritage people from the Caribbean, Americas, Europe). Recognizing the underrepresentation of Black faculty, this opportunity is to support the University’s Affirmative Action program and has been developed based on the special program provisions of the Ontario Human Rights Code. The position is part of a cohort hire of fourteen new colleagues at York University, including hires across a number of faculties and a wide range of areas and fields. The successful candidate will be joining a vibrant scholarly community at York, where we aspire to achieve equity and diversity in all areas, including race equity.
A PhD in computer science or a closely related field is required, with a demonstrated record of excellence, or promise of excellence (depending on the rank of the appointment), in research and in teaching.
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Comments
How is this any different from “No whites need apply”?
Rachel Dolezal would qualify. She self-identifies as a Black person of African descent.
Is there a time limit on how long someone needs to have self-identified as such, or how long they have to continue to self-identify as such after the hiring process is concluded?
“Yes, I’m qualified, I self-identified as a black person of African descent during the 30 minutes it took for me to draft my CV, I will do so during this entire interview, and as needed at any time until the hiring process is complete.”
Heck, I can self identify as a green female of Martian descent if that will help.
How about if I self identify as the Grand Emperor of the Planet Zorg?
Meme aside, if we continue to plumb deeper into the depths of insane Bizarro-world anti-racist racism much further, I really, really will decide to identify as an attack helicopter.
Is anyone well versed in Canadian law?
A bit.
Is this even legal?
Yes. There’s a specific exception that says discrimination on the basis of race, sex, etc. is legal as long as it aims to redress “disadvantages”.
It’s going to be interesting to see how they fill this. Canada is only about 4% black; during my entire four years of Comp Sci undergrad I saw exactly one black person in the entire CS department (he did go on to get his Master’s, so who knows – maybe Paul will apply for this).
I would be curious to know how many black Comp Sci PhDs there are in all of Canada, much less the ones that have any teaching experience.
Addenda: after graduation I once worked at a software company that had a black QA tester with a Comp Sci degree. But it was from Lakehead so it doesn’t count.
At least they’re being honest, so I respect them for that.
Most colleges and universities have been filling “diversity” positions without honestly saying “No white males need apply.” When SCOTUS said colleges could take race into account for “diversity,” that applied only to students. But most colleges talk and act like it applies to hiring faculty as well.
I was on a committee to make one of these “diversity” hires, and we were told that if any of our top candidates was a white male, our search would be terminated. They wouldn’t come right out and say that in the ad, however. The clear implication was that if we committee members knew what was good for us, we would downgrade whites and males to make sure that only only the “diverse” candidates rose to the top.
Where does it specify competence? I suggest that there is no black Ph.D. as competent as 98% of the white ones. This type of rank discrimination is disgusting.
Whether your suggestion is right or wrong, the existence of affirmative action and racial preferences gives that impression.
That is one of the many crimes of affirmative action: It taints all of the minority students and employees, giving the impression that they aren’t as good as the others. There may be some (or many) who are at the very top; but with affirmative action in force, the assumption is that they are at the bottom, and would not be there at all except for the preference they received.