From far afield, I'm wondering if the Cantab sociology crise has something to do with the time-and-motion-based schools of British sociology coming into conflict with the awakened and aggrieved factions now running the American humanities faculties for the most part. If the appointment was a sop to a certain faction, perhaps it was more directly to the political faction than to individual scholars who happened to be classed as being within traditionally disfavored racial minorities.
I honestly think that the problem is that the pragmatic way of being an academic is to do and say the things that gain you political popularity, rather than using political popularity as a tool in effecting some changes in the structures of thought that have come down to us, and translating these structures of thought so they can be approached by the minds now living. The point of doing this, of having these institutions, is what used to be called the deposit of faith -- the intellectual tradition. As Heid said, ~the work of a philosopher is stating the same thing as has been said for thousands of years, and the ability to do so in the present is the substance of intellectual progress.