Georgetown law professor under fire for comments on Black students' performance

Some Georgetown University Law students and alumni are calling for the termination of a professor captured on video discussing the performance of Black students.

“I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks, happens almost every semester,” the professor said in the video.

The conversation between two law professors at the Washington, D.C., school was filmed and posted to the online database Panopto, where students, who have been attending classes virtually because of the pandemic, can access the recordings. The video is no longer available on the platform.

“We learned earlier this week that two members of our faculty engaged in a conversation that included reprehensible statements concerning the evaluation of Black students,” Georgetown Law Dean Bill Treanor wrote in a letter sent to the university Wednesday.

“We are responding with the utmost seriousness to this situation,” he wrote, adding that the University’s Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action Office has opened an investigation.

“The Law School is also pursuing additional responses and will act swiftly and seriously to address this incident,” he said.

Tanya Weinberg, the director of media relations for the law school, confirmed that a video shared on Twitter is the same video addressed by Treanor.

The professor has not been identified by the university.

The Black Law Student Association has collected more than a thousand signatures from students, alumni and others demanding that the school take action. The petition calls for the professor’s termination and an audit of past grades and student evaluations. It also calls for a commitment to hiring more Black professors.

source: nbcnews.com