Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
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seriously conceive of such a University<br />
. It has been a general problem<br />
in Western education ever since<br />
the advent of the new science . It<br />
was particularly crystallized in tire<br />
19th century in the exchange between<br />
Matthew Arnold and Thomas<br />
Huxley . It is still with us in<br />
the crisis of the two cultures as<br />
described by C . P . Snow . It is still<br />
with us in the growing dissatisfaction<br />
with General Education programs,<br />
as well as a rather common<br />
awareness that Science alone cannot<br />
satisfy all of the complex needs<br />
of human society and culture . It is<br />
still with us in the widespread fear<br />
that a society completely dominated<br />
by science might eventually<br />
deprive us of those very values<br />
which make human life meaningful<br />
. Thus, if anything, if the Black<br />
University is predicated upon the<br />
intrinsic human value of philosophical<br />
blackness, or SOUL, the<br />
conflict between the humanistic<br />
studies and the natural sciences<br />
could conceivably be heightened<br />
still further . And if, as I assume, the<br />
Black University would probably<br />
come into existence as a result of<br />
modifying the structure of some<br />
one or more of the existing liberal<br />
arts colleges which have science departments<br />
firmly entrenched in the<br />
academic life, other practical and<br />
theoretical problems are generated .<br />
Suppose, for example, that at<br />
College X an ideal situation exists<br />
in which the administration and the<br />
board of trustees agree to change<br />
the identity of the college in order<br />
82<br />
to make it a Black College or a de<br />
facto unit in a larger Black University<br />
. What should be their attitude<br />
toward the mathematics<br />
courses and the courses in the natural<br />
sciences? What should be their<br />
attitude toward the Black Humanists,<br />
assuming again an ideal situation,<br />
who teach these courses?<br />
What should be their attitude toward<br />
the black student who is already<br />
discovering himself and his<br />
world through an exploration of<br />
the Black Experience but who happens<br />
to be a physics major? Should<br />
they, with a black stroke of the pen,<br />
wipe out as anti-Soul, and thus<br />
anti-black, the entire department'?<br />
Of' course not, for such an action<br />
would be in itself divisive and hence<br />
anti-Soul . It would chop both student<br />
and professor straight down<br />
the middle, producing the very<br />
kind of fractured sensibility which<br />
is the tragic inheritance of modern<br />
Western life .<br />
Then what recourse is there? A<br />
return to a pre-scientific state? This<br />
is clearly impractical, even if it were<br />
desirable . As I see it, it is not only<br />
undesirable ; it is foolish . Science is<br />
here to stay . Technology, a stepsister<br />
of science, is also here to stay .<br />
Not only must Afro-Americans<br />
come to grips with that fact, so also<br />
must the so-called Third World .<br />
And so in fact they have Witness<br />
the Aswan High Dam . Witness the<br />
brilliant successes of the Chinese in<br />
nuclear physics . Witness the history<br />
of Japan since the contact<br />
with the West . Lest one dismiss this<br />
March 1968 NEGRO DIGEST