When a Grad Student Called on Black Academics to Vent, Hundreds Answered
For minority students and scholars, working in academe can be isolating and frustrating, especially when they feel like there’s no place to talk about the issues they face. To give a voice to those frustrations, William J. Richardson, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Northwestern University, started a Twitter campaign calling on other academics to share examples of racism in the academy. The campaign’s hashtag, #TheseAcademicHands, made its debut on Sunday night — and comes from the phrase "throwing hands," which is slang for fighting. The phrase also suggests a sense of frustration, as in throwing your hands up in the air.