In a piece at Atlantic via MSN by John McWhorter, after outlining a series of incidents at prominent universities of anti-racist demands being presented and in general being accepted uncritically, pleads for a different view to emerge:
The writers of manifestos might classify resistance as racist, denialist backlash. But the civil, firm dismissal of irrational demands is, rather, a kind of civic valor. School officials must attend to the fine line between enlightenment and cowardice—for the benefit of not only themselves, but the Black people they see themselves as protecting.
He argues that the school administrators are committing to burning the universities in order to save them.
For more than a century several different views have been circulating among African Americans, vying for primacy: those of W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Marcus Garvey figuring prominently among them. For a brief moment in the 1970s it appeared that Booker T. Washington’s views might emerge dominant. For most of the last 40 years those of W. E. B. Du Bois have held sway, to the detriment of many blacks. It appears that Marcus Garvey’s are beginning to triumph.
McWhorter makes really good points and I largely agree. Unfortunately, as is true of most article like this, he doesnt offer any ideas about what should be done.
Steve