I don't doubt for a second that racism is at the heart of the reason for not granting full tenure to Hannah-Jones and West, but I think sexism is also a factor in deprecating Hannah-Jones. Henry Louis Gates (who is certainly not the firebrand that West is) is faring well academically. I have a feeling that he (or Cornel West) would also be granted tenure a the UNC. It's not that these two men are better (whatever that means) scholars, but that tenure committees are likely to be more impressed by assertive male personas than by female personas.

The sort of scholarship that leads to tenure at a mid-level institution like UNC is probably far less rigorous and insightful than that of Hannah-Jones. Thousands (hundreds of thousands) of people sign petitions against racism by fast food customers or servers. It's time we stood up for women like Nikole Hannah-Jones who are subjected to the same kind of discrimination as someone behind or in front of the counter at Hardees.