On December 18, 2020, San Jose State University Associate Anthropology Professor A.J. Faas sent an email to his department promoting a new website that encouraged scholars to cite the work of black academics in their research.
Called CiteBlackAuthors.com, it was started in the wake of the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd at the hands of police.
“Help us spread the word and the WORK of Black, academic professionals,” Faas wrote.
But one member of the department, Professor Elizabeth Weiss, offered a contrary viewpoint.
“Although the intent of Cite Black Authors may be well-meaning,” Weiss, who is tenured, wrote back to her colleagues, “as a scholar in search of objective knowledge, I encourage researchers to look for the best source material and realize that an author’s ethnicity, race, or color of their skin has no actual bearing on the validity of their contribution.”
Months later, Weiss’ department chair, Roberto Gonzalez, would publicly criticize her, saying she responded to the Cite Black Authors email in an “extremely insensitive way.”
“Can you imagine the reaction of graduate students reading this kind of thing from a fully-tenured professor?” Gonzalez said. “It was devastating.”
Later, Gonzalez would refer to Weiss as his “racist colleague,” saying her research “borders on professional incompetence.”
Gonzalez refused to respond to a series of questions by The College Fix, instead forwarding them to campus spokesman Kenneth Mashinchi, who also refused multiple requests for comment.
The December incident was one of a series of events that earned Weiss condemnation from her colleagues in the SJSU Anthropology Department.
Earlier that month, she had attended an online seminar called “Creating Native and American Indian Studies Programs,” in which Weiss challenged the claim that Native Americans were better at all topics than non-Native Americans.
She also took on the argument that only Native Americans should teach courses on Native Americans. And she argued with the position taken by a panelist that non-Native Americans (especially Hispanics) should be barred from working in Native American Studies Centers in case they were mistaken for Native Americans.
Shortly after, Weiss received an email from Rebeca Burciaga, an Educational Leadership & Chicana and Chicano Studies professor at San Jose State University. Burciaga said she did not appreciate the “attacking tone” of Weiss’ questions during the seminar.
“I was embarrassed that they experienced that level of hostility from a faculty member on our campus,” Burciaga wrote.
“I’m exhausted and disgusted by Karen antics that silence BIPOC voices in the academy,” she added in a subsequent email.
Weiss (pictured) has also become a lightning rod among anthropologists nationally after some of them caught wind of the August publication of Repatriation and Erasing the Past, a book she co-authored with attorney James W. Springer.
In the book, Weiss and Springer criticize repatriation laws that require human remains to be returned to Native American ancestral burial grounds. The authors argue that ideology should not trump science, and that remains with only a tentative relationship to the tribes that claim them should be kept for research.
The book was widely criticized among progressive archaeologists, with University of Alabama-Birmingham Egyptologist Sarah Parcak calling it “racist garbage” and saying it “needs to be pulled immediately.”
Academics across the country — including some at SJSU — signed an open letter urging the University Press of Florida to reconsider publishing the book. Director Romi Gutierrez refused to cancel publication, but did issue a statement apologizing for all the “pain” the book caused.
“It was not our intent to publish a book that uses arguments and terminology associated with scientific racism,” Gutierrez said.
Weiss’ own chair, Gonzalez, sent an email to the department reinforcing her academic freedom, but added a sharp criticism of her work.
“After having carefully read the book, I disagree with both the substance and style of Repatriation and Erasing the Past, including its dismissal of Native American epistemologies and [indigenous] scholarship, its Victorian-era approach to anthropological inquiry, and its linear, pre-Kuhnian view of scientific progress,” Gonzalez wrote.
Weiss responded with a letter of her own, calling the accusations of racism in the open letter by scholars and in the University Press of Florida’s response “blatantly false.”
“I am surprised and disappointed that this false narrative continues to be promoted,” she wrote, “not least because making bogus claims of racism makes the fight against genuine racism more difficult.”
She noted not a single reviewer, board member, editor, or copy editor raised any concern about racism in the book. She ended her letter with a quote from former First Lady Michelle Obama: “When they go low, we go high.”
Nonetheless, at the end of his letter, Gonzalez announced a “series of virtual events that address topics having to do with inequity and bias in the social sciences, so that we can all be well informed about these crucially important issues.”
The first speaker Gonzalez invited to present during his seminar on March 23 was Agustín Fuentes, an anthropology professor at Princeton whose father is Spanish and whose mother is a white American.
“Dr. Fuentes started his talk by denying cancel culture existed and ended his talk by blaming whites for crimes on Asians perpetrated by blacks,” Weiss told The Fix.
Soon, Weiss requested her own speaker series called “Combatting Cancel Culture: Why Diversity of Thought Still Matters.” Her request was denied, with Gonzalez saying the department was out of money and staff resources. He suggested she work with Professor Jonathan Roth of the SJSU history department, whom he had heard was organizing a similar seminar.
Weiss’ presence in the department flared up again on April 15 when she delivered a virtual presentation at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in which she argued against using religion and myth in archaeology and instead more hard science.
In her presentation, Weiss argued that many Native American creation myths stemming from oral traditions have worked their way into scientific research and are given as much weight as scientific data such as DNA.
“By promoting objective knowledge and scientific reasoning, we would say that we are doing our best to help students, colleagues and the public understand the world around us, and negating the misinformation promoted by creationism,” Weiss told The College Fix in an email.
After the presentation, the SAA blocked the archived video stream and issued an apology to “those who were harmed by the inclusion of the presentation.”
“After careful review of the recording, the SAA board finds the presentation does not align with SAA’s values, and so has chosen to not re-post it at this time,” it read.
In June, Gonzalez and SJSU College of Social Sciences Dean Walter Jacobs held a symposium for the Council of Colleges for Arts and Sciences that they titled “What to Do When a Tenured Colleague Is Branded a Racist.”
During the talk, attended by nearly 40 scholars, Gonzalez bitterly criticized Weiss (whom he gave the pseudonym “Professor Jones”), saying that while she was highly regarded in the area of physical anthropology, she was using “classic scientific racist” arguments in her book.
He cited “students of color who felt really threatened and doubtful about whether our department was an appropriate place for them.”
“It was silly to have a pseudonym,” said Weiss. “I’m the only physical anthropology professor in the department, I’m tenured, our department only has seven people who are professors, the rest are lecturers, only four of us are female.”
“It would take anyone literally two minutes to find out my real name.”
During the symposium, Gonzalez attacked Weiss personally, saying, “I would hardly describe her as a warm and fuzzy person,” adding she was “carrying some libertarian torch of some kind or another.”
He complained of the lack of avenues available to sanction a fully tenured professor, and said if he was on her tenure review committee he might argue her behavior is “academic incompetence.”
“Does she call anyone horrible names?” he said. “No. It’s scientific racism, so it’s the sort of racism that is subtle and couched in the language of scientific research.”
He even added that he had envisioned a scenario in which Weiss (or “Jones”) would lock herself in the curational facility, clinging to bones so they wouldn’t be repatriated. And he added the purpose of his speaker series was to push “in the opposite direction of this racist colleague.”
“He was basically slandering me,” Weiss said.
“The use of the term ‘incompetence’ is really problematic,” Weiss said. “That’s the term our university uses if they want to get rid of somebody.”
When Weiss asked for a letter of apology for her department chair calling her a racist, Jacobs told her during an August 6 call that none would be forthcoming.
“The dean also hinted that he was getting pressure (but from whom I don’t know) to silence me, not support me, or even to denounce me, but that he has said that he continues to support my academic freedom,” she said in an email to The Fix.
Jacobs declined numerous requests for comment by The College Fix.
Weiss noted that not only is she tenured, she is fully tenured, meaning the school can no longer hold the threat of no future advancement over her head.
“I think they would love to get rid of me,” she said. “But I don’t think they’re going to.”
She noted they could withhold resources from her and give her bad class schedules, but removing her wouldn’t be worth the hassle.
“Plus, I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said.
The above comes from an Aug. 19 story in The College Fix.
Trump had it right this weekend, “Everything Woke Turns to S***”.
“Trump had it right this weekend, “Everything Woke Turns to S***”.” I retired this summer from education and judging from this situation and others I know of Trump has it spot on. Woke-ism at its worse is a secular religion based on grievance and revenge, with virtue determined by how much of these is articulated. It is therefore irrational and consequently admits of no discussion and brooks no opposition. It takes heroic virtue to buck this trend and I salute Dr.Weiss.
Hmm… let’s see. Dr. Weiss, an expert on bones and bone health, appears to be White (though if she identifies as something else that makes her something else), went to crazy leftist UC Santa Cruz, dresses like a racist, might even be Jewish and asks a few critical questions. Of course, sure enough, that makes her a White supremacist and racist. Of course, the dean won’t answer questions, but knows Dr. Weiss is bad to the bone. Already an acknowledged expert on bone density, it seems she’s expanding her work to include the diagnoses of other types of density as well.
Students at Rate My Professor speak highly of her, though she appears to not be an “easy grader”:
“It was a tough class, but Weiss is a good professor. Tries to make books cheap as possible. Disagree with her on a lot in terms of opinion in this class, but I respect her. Wish there had been longer lectures. Learned a lot.”
“Weiss is a very good teacher but really makes you work for your A.”
“Dr. Weiss is incredibly kind, knowledgeable and helpful. I’ve taken many courses with her.”
Doesn’t seem like her students think she’s a racist bonehead.
The New Puritans…
Re:the school’s(?) assertion that whites cannot teach non-white history, etc. then by logical extension non-whites cannot teach (preach?) about white history.
Let everyone stay in his own ghetto. Seriously, colleges have become idiot farms.
What some people do not seem to care about is that some of the students in these colleges have one “white” parent and one of other color. And some of those who are complaining about Professor Weiss might have some Jewish blood themselves that they do not know they have. Oy vey!
Oops ! am I now guilty of cultural approbation because I used a Yiddish term, and have less than !% Ashkenazi? I guess I cannot wear a Spanish veil at mass either since I have less than 1% Iberian DNA, yet I have both way back in my ancestry, and my first childhood doctor was a male named Dr. Weiss.
Oy vey!
Anne TE-Good sense of humor!
It is all true too, as some of my relatives are a lot darker than I am, and some are lighter. My cousin, whos is a quarter Cherokee has lighter eyes and skin than I do and had lighter hair. I also have 2% sub Saharan African and 1% broadly Native American and East Asian. Maybe that is why I am a little darker than she is though “white”. (Laughter.)
It was hilarious when a Muslim couple who thought they were mostly Arab opened their DNA tests on you tube, only to find out they were more Jewish with one of them of English ancestry also.
Oy vey! The Romans weren’t the only ones roam’n.
And the moral to all my stories is: be careful whom you hate as you just might be one of them.
Hi Anne TE
beware of subtle crypto racism
e.g. your dear Dr. Weiss
Ain’t “Weiss” German for “White?”
Like I said, it’s everywhere.
L’chaim
also ……. isn’t like, 74.865%
of the world descended from Ghengis Khan ??
Like the Beach Boys, he really Got Around.
We are all descended from Adam and Eve. We are all descended from Noah.
Well I figure that !% broadly Native American – East Asian of my ancestry was from the Mongolians who came across the Bering Straits quite awhile back and landed over here in the U.S. The Mongols were included in the ancestry list as some of the East Asians. Maybe that is why I had large almond – shaped eyes when I was younger instead of large round ones (laughter).
And around and around we go, where we will stop no one knows.
Oh Anne of the almond eyes,
that explains why you always offer
such an interesting slant in all your comments!
Bless me Father …. I couldn’t help myself
And to make matters even more confusing they are people here in California from certain parts of China and Asia who have black-black hair, black-brown eyes and porcelain white skin, which their dark hair and eyes even makes look whiter, so not all “white” people Caucasian.
I am sorry I gave my post a thumbs up when I meant to hit reply. The mistake at the end of my previous post was not deliberate. I meant to type “not all white’ people are Caucasian”, and wanted to correct it before anyone go offended. I know some were offended by our silliness, but the point being made is that people are people no matter their hair, skin or eye color or features How we label ourselves really means nothing in the end.
It is “Forgive me, Father” not “bless me” and you could help yourself and you did know better.
And I always got a golden tan, never a copper one. My poor part Cherokee cousin could not tan at all, the Irish and English ancestry took over with her.
And what I meant about her being “poor” she would burn in the California sun and could not enjoy the beach.
I never wore such things as bikinis. I tanned privately, just enough to build up some protection when I went swimming or to a beach area. After a certain age, I no longer did that as it is not healthy to expose the skin to too much tanning. Light sun blockers will let the skin build up protection without too much damage later.
Sounds like the way our new member of SCOTUS was treated by Rhodes University in Memphis when she accepted the nomination from Trump. All of a sudden there were moves to erase her accidemic awards while a student there.