Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

advise teachers to respect the dialect
and the culture of Negro students
. Since no studies have determined
what that dialect is, some
educators would accept all habits
of language usage, no matter how
far they deviate from the standard .
Since studies do not describe the
Negro's culture, some educators
excuse irresponsibility, for example,
as characteristic of that culture .
Such permissiveness further injures
the Negro student, who, after graduating,
seeks a professional or technical
position . The professional
world expects that college graduates
will use language identified
with professional people and that
they will demonstrate responsibility
. For example, few employers
will hire secretaries who will say,
"I ain't got none of them ." Whether
the secretary speaks with the accent
of Boston or Charleston does
not matter, but the employer expects
a different level of usage . The
employer-black or white-does
not care whether the secretary's
parents and friends speak that way .
He assumes that if she wishes to
retain that pattern of usage, she
should work among them rather
than impose her "dialect" on his
business . Similarly, no onewhether
a white man or a raceproud
black man-wants an irresponsible
doctor or even an irresponsible
plumber .
6 8
THEATRE, MUSIC, ART
The Black University should
provide a training ground for young
actors, playwrights, composers,
musicians, and artists. No theatre
today provides adequate opportunity
for struggling actors and playwrights
to develop their talents .
Once again, the problem is not restricted
to the Negro ; a young white
playwright experiences equal difficulty
in gaining experience by staging
his dramas . We are concerned,
however, with the development of
Negro artists .
An adequately financed university
should be able to maintain a
resident company of young writers
and performers who could share
with students their professional experiences,
limited though they may
be, and who would have a stage on
which to develop their talent .
Similarly, the Black University
must house a substantial collection
of works by Negro writers and
scholars and a museum of art by
black men . Both collections require
money and the services of
full-time directors who have time
and travel expenses to search for
the necessary materials .
The resident company, the library,
and the museum can be established
and maintained as easily
at a predominantly Negro institution
already established as at a new
institution.
March 1968 NEGRO DIGEST