Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

tion by some black people . Thus,
demands for all-black dormitories
emerge, or statements are made
that a white man cannot teach a
course in black history . Those who
aspire to a society in which black
and white will live with mutual respect
and opportunity must strive
to understand the drives that cause
some of these demands to be made .
In understanding the demands,
the university must evaluate and
analyze the consequences of accepting
them or rejecting them . In
many cases, such as the allegations
about exploitation of Negro athletes
that have been recently publicized
in Sports Illustrated and
Newsweek, the grievances of the
black students have so much basis
that some drastic action is needed .
For example, the Negro athletes'
demand for a black coach is not
unreasonable .
True, at the very moment of
their demand, an appropriately
qualified black coach may not be
available, but the reason for this
must be understood, too. With the
large number of black athletes who
participate in college sports, it is
certainly more than an accident or
oversight that few of them ever return
to their alma maters to coach.
Thus, the demand for a black
coach is not as unreasonable as it
may seem at first blush . Why not
wait, then, until the college can
take time to seek out one or develop
one? This is, in a sense, the
crux of the black revolution or
black awakening . Blacks have been
wwaiting for years for obvious griev-
32
ances to be recognized and redressed-and
since society has
continued to ignore them, blacks
are making demands for fulfillment
now!
The intellectual, of course, recognizes
that all demands cannot be
met immediately, but a start can
be made-even if on a basis that
can be criticized as somewhat inadequate.
The real task of the university
is to begin to bridge the
credibility gap that exists between
the black students and society .
The university can do this by attempting
to understand the concerns
and grievances of the black
students and beginning to deal with
them directly . In doing so, the university
from its position of greater
understanding and maturity must
not try to always force the black
students to function according to
the university's rules-for in a
sense it is some of the university's
methods of operation that have
created the situation from which
the grievances stem . Just as the
student revolts on campuses all
over the country have forced universities
to re-evaluate, and often
change, policies that have been unchallenged
for years, so should the
black student awakening be viewed
by the university as an opportunity
to deal with the subtle, and
not too subtle, effects of racism on
the university.
Some observers of the changes
in the college scene vis-a-vis the
black student have wondered if
this isn't racism in reverse . As I
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March 1969 NEGRO DIGEST