Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

grades for simply reaffirming the fact that "whitey is doing his thang ."
This is not the way to liberation and I think we should stop letting people
believe that it is . Students who want to play football, basketball, go to
Europe, become stockbrokers, get into the movies, become "black capitalists"
or playboy bunnies, should be taught/warned and left alone . Most
certainly, they should be identified . We have committed some regrettable
mistakes because we failed to identify them in the past . Many of
us saw them walking around looking "militant" and felt compelled to
create campus "revolts" in their behalf. This was certainly not the least
of our mistakes . But let me move on .
I had hoped that I could deal with the questions that you raised at the
end of your letter in the order that you raised them . However, as I have
attempted to respond to-rather than just answer-your letter, a large
part of the order has already been pre-empted . But I will, at this point,
attempt to go beyond the body of your letter to those numbered questions
that remain . You will, I hope, permit me one exception : questions numbered
5 . I see no way to proceed without first dealing with these .
Clearly, there cannot be more than a few really excellent programs in
Afro-American Studies in this country . The scarcity of our resources
leaves no doubt about this . (Take, for example, what is happening in
Northern California : in the San Francisco Bay and surrounding area
there are some 20 major and minor colleges and universities . All of these
are presently in the process of developing Black and/or Ethnic Studies
programs . Really! I can think of only a dozen or so black instructors
who may have more than an elementary understanding of what is actually
meant by Black Studies . Of these, I can think of less than half a dozen
who have demonstrated or expressed any genuine interest in developing
a Black University . Further still, if we started to speak of less than
$10,000 to $15,000 a year in salary I would be afraid to bank on more
than three of these . On the brighter side, if we can call it that, the situation
is somewhat better with concerned students . But this glimmer too is
dulled when you consider the task at hand : the development of some 20
college programs, not to mention the demands being made by local and
surrounding high schools . ) Given these circumstances, not only in California
but across the nation, it is easy to appreciate the absurdity of
trying to develop Black Studies at random . But even if this could be
done, it would be certain to weaken, if not totally dispel, any effort to
develop one or two major programs anywhere . So the question of where
such programs should be developed becomes key .
Perhaps, for a change, we are actually in need of a conference to decide
where we should or should not attempt to develop Black Studies . And
if such a conference were to be called, it should be made clear to all
concerned that the purpose of the conference would be to bring together
NEGRO DIGEST Morch 1970 63