https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/14/what-happens-when-scholars-discuss-potentially-controversial-ideas-outside-bubbles ------------------------snip
Saida Grundy this week may have become the most discussed new assistant professor of the year, without even starting her position. While Grundy's tweets on race have been debated intensely, she initially stayed on the sidelines. But on Tuesday she released a statement of "regret" and a clarification of her comments that were critical of white male college students and white businesses. Her statement came hours after Robert A. Brown, president of Boston University, where Grundy becomes an assistant professor of sociology July 1, issued a statement <http://www.bu.edu/president/letters-writings/letters/2015/5-12/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=prbumain> that was highly critical of her comments on Twitter. Via email, Grundy responded to an *Inside Higher Ed* question about whether the university had asked that she issue her statement: "No, all parties were in agreement that dual statements from myself and President Brown would best address tensions and confusions around the matter." The tweets in question (captured by critics before Grundy made her Twitter feed private) have led to calls for BU to fire her (which the university is not doing) and have resulted in widespread criticism from the conservative blogosphere and some others. They've also attracted sympathy and praise from many black academics and some others. Among the comments Grundy made on Twitter, one that has led people to question her fairness as an instructor said, “Why is white america [sic] so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?” Another said, “Every [Martin Luther King Jr.] week I commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. And every year [I] find it nearly impossible.” At the end of April, after a multitweet conversation about the uniqueness of European slavery, Grundy allegedly wrote, “in other words, deal with your white sh*t [sic], white people. Slavery is a *YALL* thing.” As the story broke over the weekend <https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/12/boston-u-distances-itself-new-professors-comments-about-white-male-students>, Grundy did not comment. But in her statement Tuesday, which she provided to *Inside Higher Ed* and others, she expressed regret over her tweets. Grundy explained them a bit and talked about her commitment to being inclusive of all students. "In the past year alone, the inconvenient matter of race has made itself an unavoidable topic of discussion in our country. These issues are uncomfortable for all of us, and yet, the events we now witness with regularity in our nation tell us that we can no longer circumvent the problems of difference with strategies of silence. I regret that my personal passion about issues surrounding these events led me to speak about them indelicately. I deprived them of the nuance and complexity that such subjects always deserve," she said.
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