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Allegations of Plagiarism Are Not New Weapons Used to Besmirch the Reputation of Black Leaders

I, like many of my friends and peers who are Black women with PhDs from traditional programs at predominantly white institutions (often referred to as PWIs), simply shook our heads in disgust and called or texted each other with comments like, “here we go again,” or “I am not surprised” when the “news” story broke about an anonymous person who instigated an investigation by a News & Observer reporter into Chapel Hill—Carrboro City Schools’ superintendent Dr. Nyah Hamlett’s dissertation. For many of us who matriculated through a traditional program at a PWI (not through an online university or program but who actually had to show up every day in the minority as "Black faces in white spaces") it conjured up feelings and experiences that many shared even though we may have gone through different programs at different schools. Experiences that include having your intellectual prowess always under microscopic scrutiny, never being given the benefit of the doubt when mistakes or errors are unintentionally made, finding mentally healthy ways to repel the routine microagressions, or having your writing ability criticized to humiliating degrees when your white peers are praised for their writing ability that would never stand up as superior to yours by peer reviewers or others outside of the program that you are enrolled.

 The reality is that if a sample of dissertations were pulled you would probably find some errors in citations or references that could be argued is an example of plagiarism in a large percentage of those sampled. However, in most of those cases, I would argue that it wasn’t willful intent but sloppiness or careless editing by not only the student but his or her advisor and dissertation committee members. Earning a PhD involves many more people other than the student. Therefore, calling into question the integrity of a dissertation also calls into question the integrity of the student, their committee, advisor, program, and school.

In addition to feeling the insult and hurt on a personal level that Dr. Hamlett no doubt felt, in preparation to speak at the recent Chapel Hill—Carrboro City Schools Board of Education meeting, which was three days after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday holiday, I couldn’t help but to think about the controversy that surrounded a similar investigation into Dr. King’s dissertation. On October 11, 1991, the New York Times ran an AP article reporting the following: 

  “A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University concluded today that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized passages in his dissertation for a doctoral degree at the university 36 years ago. ’There is no question,’ the committee said in a report to the university's provost, ‘but that Dr. King plagiarized in the dissertation by appropriating material from sources not explicitly credited in notes, or mistakenly credited, or credited generally and at some distance in the text from a close paraphrase or verbatim quotation.’ Despite its finding, the committee said that ‘no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King's doctoral degree,’ an action that the panel said would serve no purpose.” 

While I don’t endorse plagiarism and do believe that all scholars should demonstrate the highest of integrity especially those who are directly influencing or impacting the impressions of children, I also believe that what should be considered in these cases is the intention of the author combined with the degree to which suspicion of plagiarism is found not just in a couple of sentences but throughout the body of work by the author. People make mistakes, especially in haste or when fatigued by an arduous and grueling process, which I think many people with earned PhD’s would agree characterizes the process of matriculating through a PhD program especially by the time you make it to and through the dissertation process. There is nothing in Dr. Hamlett’s track record as an academician and administrator that suggests she is anything other than an intelligent, honest, and adept leader with integrity and an unwavering commitment to and compassion for all children. 

I am a native of Chapel Hill and went from elementary school, junior high and high school in the district on to graduate from undergrad at UNC Chapel Hill. It sickens me that in a school district like Chapel Hill—Carrboro, which has failed to deliver on its promise of ensuring a high quality education for all children and not just those from affluent backgrounds that this allegation of plagiarism is being used as a weapon to besmirch the reputation of and destroy faith a superintendent who by all measures has what it takes to help the district rise to higher ground. While the district is recognized as one of the top in the nation, behind that shining recognition is a dark reality. For decades it has failed to ensure that Black and in some cases Hispanic/Latino, refugee, and poor kids have the same educational outcomes as white and affluent kids in the district. Those students who are thriving in the district are those who have all the means to do so no matter what school district they are in. And, those students who have the most have parents who often fight the hardest and demand the loudest for more when the primary focus of the community at large should be on how the district can truly become a shining example for the nation by demonstrating its ability to produce children with little resources to excel academically and move from the bottom to the top.

 I don’t know who the anonymous person was who instigated the investigation. I would recommend however that he or she use their influence and power to work with Dr. Hamlett, and the district’s school board and administration to help find solutions to more weightier matters like as Delores Bailey, Chapel Hill resident, former parent and Executive Director of Empowerment, Inc. pointed out in her remarks to the school board---homeless families with children in Chapel Hill and Carrboro who are sleeping in cars and yet getting up every morning and going to school, or, I add the children whose parents work multiple jobs and don’t have the time to invest like other parents into helping their children achieve academically but who are trusting that the resources are available in the schools they are attending, or the children who are trying to navigate through multiple adverse childhood experiences including parent drug use, violence, and trauma. That to me would be a far better investment of time and resources and would yield much greater, nobler, and lasting returns. It would also model the type of behavior that would inspire young people in the district to become upstanding, contributing, compassionate, and positive global world citizens, not bullies, meanspirited, and divisive scandalmongers.

  Click this link to review the Chapel Hill--Carrboro City Schools' Board of Education Meeting on January 19, 2022