Shattering
the Silences: The Case for Minority Faculty
Across America campus diversity is under attack; affirmative action programs are banned, ethnic studies departments defunded, multicultural scholarship impugned. Even so, faculty of color remain less than 9.2% of all full professors and minority student enrollment is dropping for the first time in 30 years. Shattering the Silences cuts through the rhetoric of the current Culture Wars by telling the stories of eight pioneering scholars - African American, Latino, Native American and Asian American. As we watch them teach, mentor and conduct research, we realize in concrete terms how a diverse faculty enriches and expands traditional disciplines and contributes to a more inclusive campus environment. These eight professors also discuss the excessive workload and special pressures minority faculty face everyday in majority white institutions. For example, minority teachers are disproportionately tapped to provide diversity on faculty committees and in scholarly organizations. They often find themselves de facto advisors for all the students of their ethnicity on campus. Their research and teaching is held to different standards from that of their white colleagues. Dr. Darlene Clark Hine looks back on the first wave of minority faculty as "a sacrificial generation." Shattering the Silences has been designed to help universities and colleges remedy many of the recruiting and retention problems the video reveals. Academic affairs officers, affirmative action directors, minority student advisors, department chairs, faculty and students can use this film to:
Faculty Featured in Shattering the Silences:
![]() Faculty and Staff Development Multicultural Education Race Relations |
"Shattering
the Silences is a shattering experience for a liberal like me...What
we see is not pretty and it makes me uncomfortable. This is a powerfully
effective film which deserves screening on all our campuses." "Graphically
illustrates the intolerable burdens minority faculty operate under in
our majority institutions and what can be done about them. An excellent
vehicle for stimulating candid discussion." "One of the
most important films to be produced about higher education or race this
decade. It puts before us a vision of how to build strong interracial
communities both within the academy and outside its walls." "Beautiful and
brilliant...We are left cheering, wincing, crying and applauding...A
must-see for anyone concerned with the dynamics of race, ethnicity and
power in the American university." "A powerful
documentary about one of the most important ongoing transformations
in higher education today." Producer/Directors:
Stanley Nelson, Gail Pellett Free
Facilitator Guide Shipped with Purchase |