Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

plications of such attitudes as you make your moves .
Of course, when we consider the past performances of the colonizing
world, the attitude of the white administrators should not startle us. The
"Metropolitan" areas have had no more qualms about sapping the human,
creative resources of their colonies in a later period than they did about
claiming the physical resources in an earlier, more blatant time . Nor
should "good intentions" becloud the issue ; for if they do exist anywhere,
they do not in any way lessen the impact of the attitudes which make the
so-called "brain-drain" possible . Whatever has suited the purpose of the
colonizers has been defined as good and necessary, whether it takes place
between Brussels and Leopoldville or between New Haven and Atlanta .
Nor does it matter that the term has sometimes been "assimilation" and
at other times it has been "integration ." Ultimately it spells destruction of
the heart of the colonized people if it is not stopped. Ultimately it is
reminiscent of Harold Cruse's lament for the cultural (now followed by
the physical) destruction of the heart of Harlem . Finally, when we remember
the historical attitudes of white northern institutions towards the
black schools of the South, we are not surprised . For the current action
fits well their pattern of basic unconcern about the needs of black life .*
What does surprise and trouble us is the way in which many of you
brothers and sisters on the northern campuses are participating fully in the
patterns of our common destruction. I say "common destruction" out of a
conviction that whatever diminishes the life and vitality of any significant
black institutions (especially those which have been rooted in our history
and which are now being pushed to an encounter with our essential blackness)
is a destroyer of us all . So this letter comes as an urgent fraternal
message, raising what is for us a crucial set of concerns .
Assuming that we are no longer committed to the individualistic ethos
of America, nor to integration as it has so far been defined, and assuming
that one of our major goals is the building of new levels of solidarity within
the black community, I wish to raise the following questions for serious
discussion :
1 . As you assess the total struggle and your own particular situations in
the North, in what ways may those of us who teach on southern
campuses be of grt;atest help to you? How much of our energies
should be spent in consulting and lecturing in the North at your request
when there is so much business to take care of down here?
* For an excellent, though chilling, summary of the history of relationships between white
and black academic institutions, see John Sekora, "Murder Relentless and Impassive :
The American Academic Community and the Negro College," Soundings, LI, 3 (Fall,
1968) . This is available by mail at 400 Prospect Street, New Haven, Conn . 06511 .
NEGRO DIGEST March 1969 9