A Georgetown law professor has resigned after being placed on administrative leave over a Zoom conversation with a now-fired professor whom the school described as racist.
David Batson participated in the call 鈥� which was recorded and posted on social media by a student聽 鈥� with former-Georgetown professor Sandra Sellers.
鈥淚 hate to say this. I ended up having this, you know, angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks. Happens almost every semester. And it鈥檚 like, 鈥極h, come on.鈥� You know. Get some really good ones but they鈥檙e also usually some that are just plain at the bottom. It drives me crazy,鈥� Sellers was recorded saying in a meeting with Batson.
鈥淲hat drives me crazy is, you know, the concept of how that plays out. And whether that is, you know, my own perceptions playing in here and when certain, my own, you know, my own unconscious biases, you know, playing out in the scheme of things,鈥� Batson responded.
. negotiations Professors Sandra Sellers and David Batson being openly racist on a recorded Zoom call.
Beyond unacceptable.
鈥� Hassan Ahmad (@hahmad1996)
WTOP reached out to Georgetown asking for confirmation that Batson had submitted his resignation and that Georgetown Law Dean Bill Treanor had accepted.
“Yes and yes,” a university spokesperson said in an email.
Treanor released an updated statement Thursday afternoon in which he said he was 鈥渁ppalled鈥� by the conversation between now-terminated professor Sandra Sellers and professor David Batson, who was placed on leave before resigning.
鈥淚 informed Professor Sellers that I was terminating her relationship with Georgetown Law effective immediately,鈥� Treanor wrote.
The Georgetown University Law Center Black Students Association, noting that Sellers thought she was on a private call, had earlier聽聽calling for Sellers鈥� immediate termination.
鈥淭hese racist statements reveal not only Sellers鈥� beliefs about Black students in her classes, but also how her racist thoughts have translated to racist actions. Professor Sellers鈥檚 bias has impacted the grades of Black students in her classes historically, in her own words,鈥� the BLSA statement reads.
