Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

language arts experts who should
play key roles in liberating black
consciousness . If, indeed, the
mid-twentieth century is a "world
given over to racism," the Negro
college campus is apt to be strategically
the seat of neo-colonial rule .
The English Department, which
requires that every student come
through its portals for a stamp of
approval and a ticket of eligibility
in pursuit of academic degrees,
must be the focal point of conditioning
the mind of the Negro to
accept his role in a racist world . If
this is true, a University such as
Fisk-with nine of the 11 teachers
in the English Department white,
including the past chairman and
interim chairman-does not give
any indication of the white man's
conditioning of black minds cracking
at the seams ; in fact, the disproportion
of white to Negro teachers
would suggest reinforcement of the
traditional pattern and should assure
the power structure that the
seams are uptight .
Going home, then, is a two-way
road and must be paved with good
intentions by all parties concerned .
The total black community of the
U.S.A. has been duped by institutionalized
brainwashing in the
schools, churches, yes even the
homes, and historical conditioning
toward an acceptance of a status
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of dehumanization and deprivation
-spiritual, social, if not actually
physical. The total white community
is diseased with racial delusions-institutionalized
in the same
ways through myth and deed,
sanctioned by religious creed and
law-thereby rendering it incompetent
to deal with a democratic,
non-racist world body in a healthy
way . Our educational institutions
reflect the American dilemma in a
stark mirror image. There are
many black intellectuals such as J.
Herman Blake (NEGRO DIGEST,
March 1967) from the University
of California, Berkeley, who see
rampant racism at one of America's
great universities, who sees the institution
as "an intellectual microcosm
of America," who sees these
campuses for what they are-hideous
for white draft dodgers, exploiters
of the scholarship racket,
racist snobs who use the campuses
as country clubs and sports arenas ;
there are many black intellectuals
who are disenchanted with the
great northern and western colleges
and universities where, in the spirit
of the democratic tradition, they
have been hired out by the "Rent a
Negro" agency for the instant integrated
look . What are his alternatives?
Are the Negro colleges
and universities ready for him or
are they engaged in a historical
sweep marked by a headlong rush
down the "sellout" road to integration
or intellectual and scholastic
extermination of the Black man?
An example which might point out
the fallacy of this thinking is that,
March 1969 NEGRO DIGEST