A Word of Warning for Black Professionals and Professionals of Color regarding TuitionFit

I reserve a call-out on a blog post for a serious grievance. In the past, I have been quick to use my blog to do a call-out and ended up having to retract then regret that retraction.

However, when a person consistently showcases a lack of regard for Black professionals and professionals of color, I choose to take a stand.

I met Mark Salisbury on TuitionFit in what I consider to be the early days of Twitter. At one point, he asked me and another Black professional to sit with him on a zoom call. There was no fee offered for this call but I agreed to take the call. The Black professional and I provided feedback, I cannot think of one valuable thing I received in return.

At another point, I was asked for another zoom call with Mark Salisbury. We talked about his business. We also talked about ways for him to be a better ally. My response was to uplift professionals of color and support his Black friends in the way they wanted to be supported. Again, I received no value from that call. And Mark appears to have not taken up the call to be a better ally, in fact, quite the opposite in my opinion.

To be honest, I was okay with doing free zoom calls for the benefit of TuitionFit at the time, because at the time I was not aware of Mark’s patterns.

However, it all changed when Mark said a couple of things to me on twitter that I felt were racist and wrong. When I said something about those comments I was immediately blocked. When I spoke up publicly and said I had devoted almost 2 hours, if not more to him, other Black professionals and professionals of color told me publicly and privately they had also donated their time with no compensation.

That is when I realized that Mark seems to have a practice of picking the brains of People of Color and Black people without offering any compensation for the time- my personal conclusion based on my experience. That this may be a pattern.

It seems that Mark uses his network to acquire knowledge about the needs of Black students and students of color, and students from low-income backgrounds. Then it appears that he takes positions that Black students and students of color and students from low-income backgrounds should not be exploited. This appears to happen WHILE Mark seems to exploit Black professionals and professionals by picking their brains without offering any compensation.

I have yet to receive an apology from Mark for some of the things he said that I felt were racist and inappropriate. If one was provided, I must have missed it. In fact, quite the opposite. It feels like I had the door slammed in the face and was silenced through a block.

I find it funny that I was perceived to be valuable by Mark for so long then it seems the minute I had objections to how he treated me I became an individual who needed to be silenced through a block. He wanted to hear from me for about 2 hours for free but stopped having that need the minute I asked to be treated with dignity and respect as a Black person.

I constantly find it frustrating that people advocate for Black students and students of color yet treat the people who work with those students as well as other Black professionals and professionals of color with such blatant disrespect.

It is tiring that people do not realize the irony of saying do not exploit the Black student while appearing to exploit Black professional labor.

But this was not just one incident with Mark.

Recently, a friend posted something on LinkedIn about a university system that went test-free having the most diverse admit pool. I said that I found that to be surprising considering that test-optional objections tend to say colleges and universities will become LESS diverse if they get rid of the test. Making a joke, I said how can you have such a diverse admit pool without a test creating opportunities.

Mark replied on LinkedIn and said wait until enrollment, there may be an issue with diversity then. He went on to advocate for diversity and for Black students. I made Mark aware, AGAIN, that he had harmed me as a Black woman and I would not engage until he apologized and made amends.

Mark responded to my comments regarding enrollment but refused to reply to my comments regarding the harm done and the need for apologies/amends. When I called him out for ignoring the comments, I was blocked.

To be clear, when an ally is asked to apologize and make amends they should take the opportunity to find out how they harmed this individual and make apologies and amends if appropriate. If you are committed to allyship then you should be committed to hearing how a Black professional feels harmed by your behavior. Mark did not seem to care or want to know any details, he just wanted to be able to silence me through a block as soon as possible.

Mark had told me he wanted to STRENGTHEN his commitment to Black people, he coaxed me into giving free labor to teach him how to become a better ally. Yet, when presented with an opportunity to step up and hear the harm he caused me chose, instead, to block me immediately.

This showed me his commitment. It also led me to another personal conclusion based on my own experience, Mark seems to use and exploit Black labor and labor from people of color when needed, then disregard the laborer if they ask him to take accountability.

So I am making a public warning. Please, if you are a Black professional or a professional of color, DO NOT engage with TutitionFit unless there is payment involved or value received. As I said, I was told by others that they experienced the same. I cannot verify this but I do not know these individuals to lie.

I will not be using TuitionFit, there are other similar services I can use for my students. I will not support a company with a founder who has exploited my labor and possibly the labor of other Black professionals and professionals of color.