The decision to terminate Professor Keith Jones from the Africana Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston is not simply an administrative action. It reflects a larger pattern that students in the department have been experiencing for years. For those of us who study Africana Studies, what is happening right now feels painfully familiar. These are the very dynamics we analyze in our classrooms: institutions marginalizing Black scholarship, limiting resources for programs that challenge dominant narratives, and silencing voices that empower students to think critically about history, race, and power.
Professor Keith Jones is not just another faculty member. He is the kind of professor who reminds students why education matters in the first place. At a university where many students juggle full-time work, family responsibilities, and long commutes simply to stay enrolled, Professor Jones has consistently shown up for students in ways that extend far beyond the classroom.
He encourages students to question systems, analyze structures, and connect theory to real life. For many students—especially students of color—that type of mentorship is rare and transformative. That is precisely why his termination is so troubling.
Students in Africana Studies have been witnessing the gradual erosion of our department for years. Course offerings are limited, schedules often fail to accommodate working and commuting students, and opportunities for academic growth feel constrained rather than expanded. For a university that often speaks about diversity, equity, and inclusion, the reality experienced within Africana Studies tells a different story.
Departments like ours frequently face institutional pressure because they challenge dominant frameworks of knowledge. Africana Studies asks difficult questions about colonialism, systemic inequality, race, and power. Those questions are not always comfortable for institutions to confront—but they are essential for any university that claims to value intellectual rigor and social responsibility.
Patrick Wolfe famously wrote that colonialism is “a structure, not an event.” That insight applies here as well. What we are witnessing is not one isolated administrative decision; it reflects a structure that repeatedly places Africana Studies in a position of precarity.
When resources shrink, faculty disappear, and professors who advocate for students are pushed out, the message becomes clear: our department is expendable.
But Africana Studies is not expendable.
For many students, this department is the reason we chose this university. It provides the intellectual tools to understand the historical and contemporary forces shaping our communities. Professor Jones embodies that mission.
The question the university should be asking right now is simple: what kind of institution does it want to be?
Students are paying attention.
And for us, this moment is not just about one professor.
It is about the future of our department, the integrity of our education, and whether the university truly stands behind the values it claims to uphold.