[Air-L] Please get your facts right

[Rod Carveth]

I had indicated that I was going to stay out of any further comments
related to my observation that I doubted U of Arkansas was going to be
attracting top candidates given the election of the seriously unqualified
Trumpster, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as governor, and the educational
policies that she advocates.

But, I do have to respond to Daniel Greene's post today, particularly this
passage:


*Dr. Carveth was previously involved in a similar debate on the National
Communication Association's list serv, regarding the rights of faculty to
opine on "the illegal immigrant threat and the history of illegals [sic]
murder and rapes, and threatened to sue
<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/26/national-communication-association-suspends-discussion-listserv
<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/26/national-communication-association-suspends-discussion-listserv>>
anyone accusing him or colleagues of racism. *

First of all, what I said on this list has absolutely nothing to do with
the incident involving the CRTNET listserv.

Second, Greene has conflated facts regarding that incident.

My friend and colleague, Dr. Richard Vatz (Towson University) made a
comment on the CRTNET listserv about how media coverage failed to include
sufficient news coverage about "illegals." For this, Dr. Vatz was attacked
for being a racist on both the CRTNET listserv and on a Facebook group
called Communication Scholars for Transformation (CST).

Dr. Vatz and I differ on many political issues, as he is conservative and I
am liberal. But, over the years, I know that he is a principled
conservative (unlike many in the GOP). I also believe in the First
Amendment -- which NCA purports to be as well -- and called out the ad
hominem attacks against Dr. Vatz as a way of muzzling his speech. For that,
people on both CRTNET and CST labelled me a racist as well. Teaching at an
HBCU and having members of your field calling you a racist is an awkward
situation at best.

Around that time, I had a conversation with a friend who is a First
Amendment lawyer, and among the topics to come up was this issue with
CRTNET and CST. The friend said one of the things I could do would take
legal action. The friend said that it would be a long shot, but sometimes
the threat is just as effective. My friend was correct. Dr. Vatz and I
posted on CRTNET that if the false charges of racism did not stop, we would
seek legal action. NCA at that point stopped having CRTNET have discussions
about issues. Rather, CRTNET now carries announcements about conferences
and research opportunities, jobs and obituaries.

I hope this clarifies Greene's passage that not only erroneously tries to
equate the two events, but also provides important context.

Rod Carveth