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The student revolts that gave rise to black studies happened alongside similar uprisings
in the Asian and Chicano/latino student communities, and oftentimes they took place as part of
the united front. Thus, Asian studies, Chicano latino studies, and Gender studies come from
a similar efforts from marginalized communities in their struggles toward social justice.
For that reason, Black Studies theories and methodologies have much to offer to their
sister disciplines. WEB Dubois writings on the color line and dual consciousness, that
is, the dilemma African Americans face in constantly having to negotiate the boundaries
of living simultaneously living in two worlds (black and white) are works that Asians, Latinos,
women, and *** minorities may find value in. The African-American experience in terms
of citizenship in the United States - granted by the 14th amendment to the constitution
-is an experience that the immigrant community may find value in especially in light of the
current backlash on the immigrant community in Arizona in which citizens and noncitizens
alike who come from immigrant backgrounds are faced with a whittling away of their civil
rights. Some have even considered a partial repeal of the 14th amendment such that the
children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States would not be given citizenship
rights. As far as the African-American experience -we've been there and done that, and the country
would do well to look two that experience as well as the experience of Jim Crow before
we go any further down this very dangerous road. By the same token, black studies, and
black students, have much to gain in engaging Asian Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, and
Gender Studies. The brilliant contributions of the late Gloria Anzaldua have in many ways
succeeded those of WEB Dubois. She writes as a Latina, a woman, a second generation
Mexican immigrant, and a lesbian and the notion of border crossing along multiple borders
(that is the cultural boundaries between the various aspects of her identity). Is it possible
to exist as a Latina in a United States society that devalues that aspect of who she is? How
does one negotiate being a woman in a US and Latino society with strong notions of male
supremacy? How is it possible to exist as a lesbian within a context that looks upon
homosexuality with disdain? These are questions that Gloria Anzaldua deals with that bring
dual consciousness to a whole new level - a level of multiple consciousness. I believe
black studies would do well to add some of those theories and perspectives into a discipline
that encompasses people of multiple identities especially when black people of diverse backgrounds
are often in such close contact. Why is it that when you visit the cafeteria on your
campus you often see African Americans and Africans (immigrants from Africa) sitting
at different tables? What about Blacks from the Caribbean? Are they just as black as black
folks from Mississippi? What about black folks who happen to be gay or lesbian? Are the just
as black as straight black folk? The social critique of Gloria Anzaldua may be helpful
in helping students of Black Studies wrestle with those questions.
Finally, what about white students? What do they have to gain from black studies? What
is it like to experience the United States as a person of African descent, and what insights
can a person gain by looking at that experience? Again, Cornel West shares his insights at
an event that I hosted at Sonoma State University. A warning to viewers, this excerpt does contain
language that some consider to be offensive, but Dr. West uses the language to make it
very eloquent point: … And we need is so very badly today, especially
after 9-11… Especially after 9-11. Never in the history of the nation have all Americans
felt unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence and hated for who they are. It's
a new experience any Americans. Many white brothers and sisters, to me, "You know, brother
West, I just can't get over this sense of being hated like this." I say, "You don't
say! Really?! Oh! That's a novel thing, huh?" "Yeah, I just don't like it." I say, my dear
brother, to be a *** in America for 400 years is to be unsafe, unprotected, subject
to random violence, and hated for who you are. So, we've got some experience that might
be useful. We've got some experience that might provide some insight for the nation
itself to access the best of its past and its present, now that the whole nation in
that particular sense has become “niggerized.” What kind of resources are available for that
nation? Will they remain socratic? Self critical? Or will it become self righteous? Will they
remain prophetic or will it become revengefull? Let's look it certain moments in black history
when black folk had to respond to vicious forms of degradation called terrorism. What
did Emmet Till’s mother say when she stepped to the lectern when her baby, Emmet, shot
down by American … murdered by American terrorists in Mississippi August 1955. You
all know who Emmet Till was? She brought his body back to Chicago. They said under no circumstances
will we allow the coffin to be open. She said, "This is my only baby. I'm 32 years old, and
my husband fought in the Jim Crow army against a vicious xenophobe named Hitler, carrying
the U.S. flag, and now his baby is now the victim of American terrorism. We go’n keep
that coffin open. And they did keep that coffin open in Chicago, didn't they? And 50,000 citizens
of all colors - the first major civil rights demonstration, three months before a black
sister named, Rosa Parks sat down in order to stand up for justice in December, 1955.
And what did she say when she stepped to the lectern - tears flowing, socratic juices still
at work - looks over the lectern, her baby's head is five times the size of his ordinary
head, and the coffin is open? And she says, "I don't have a minute to hate, I’m gonna
pursue justice for the rest of my life! What level of spiritual maturity and moral wisdom
and courage to still both critique, but also the care and to love went into that statement.
She’s not isolated. This is a tradition that produced her. That took very seriously
the interrogation of dogma like white supremacy, but yet at the same time she refused to get
in the gutter with cowardly gangsters who killed her baby because she didn't have to
read Shakespeare's, The Merchant of Venice, to know that the law can be bent one way or
the other. Against Shylock or for him or, against Portia or for him. She didn't have
to listen to the quality of mercy speech of Portia, then Portia herself was unable to
enact. She had already been molded by something else that said, "I'm still not gonna hate!
I'm not gonna hunt them down like cockroaches. I’m not gonna exercise of vengeance and
revenge. I’m not gonna be manichaean, thinking that somehow, I’m purely good and they are
purely evil. No! I’m deeper than that! Martin had the same challenge when four young sisters
in Birmingham were victims of American terrorism. 16th St. Baptist Church, you will know what
I’m talking about, September 1963. The only time Brother Martin cried in public. Didn't
know what to say. Wondering whether this non- violence was a hoax and anyway. People gonna
be killing babies like that in church, in Sunday school. He looks of the parents. Tears
flowing again. What does he say? “Somehow we’ve got to muster the armors of love and
justice.” This is a great people at their best! At their best! And it’s a human potential
for any people at their best!
As Cornel West is fond of saying, there's much that society
at large can gain from the experience of a "blues" people, a people whose unique experience
provides fresh new perspectives and insights. That does it for this episode. Join me next
time for a look into the African past. We explore rise and fall of powerful and wealthy
African kingdoms as well as the fateful path they took that ultimately led to the Atlantic
slave trade -the trafficking of millions of human beings from West Africa to the Americas.