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7) - Melba Joyce Boyd, "Afrocentrics, Afro-Elitists, and Afro-Eccentrics - The Polarization of Black Studies Since The Student Struggles of The Sixties"

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7) - Melba Joyce Boyd, "Afrocentrics, Afro-Elitists, and Afro-Eccentrics - The Polarization of Black Studies Since The Student Struggles of The Sixties"

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Ty Afrocentrics, Afro-elitists, and Afro-eccentrics: The Polarization of Black Studies Since the Student Struggles of the Sixties Melba Joyce Boyd Ancestors Why are our ancestors aay Kings and princes ‘and never the common people? Wes the Ol Comty adonscacy ‘where every man was aking? Or did the slave-catchers steal only the aristocrats «and leave the fieldhands laborers street cleaners sarbage collectors dish washers cooks sand maids bebind? ‘My own ancestor (research reveals) was a swineberd who tended the pigs inthe Royal Pigstye sand slept in the mud among the bogs. Yet I'm as proud of him «as of any king or prince dreamed up in fantasies of bygone glory. Dudley Randall Afrocentrics, Afro-elitists, and Afro-eccentrics 205 (On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, ‘Tennessee. On April 5, 1968, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the black students at Western Michigan University occupied the Student Center Building and demanded a black studies curriculum and a scholarship fund in the face of a heavily armed National Guard. This occurrence was characteristic of sixties radicalism on college campuses and, for the most part, was re- sponsible for the establishment of black studies on predominantly white campuses. That was over twenty-five years ago, a generation past. My history in black studies begins on that eventful day at Western Michigan University, where I was a freshwoman. In retrospect, the movement to penetrate higher education has rendered an alternative intellectualism grounded in activism. But, to some extent, black studies has degenerated into schisms and an- tagonisms that confound the field today. Moreover, ifit were not for so- cial pressures clamoring for a multicultural curriculum that reflects the di- versity of the American population, black studies and related “minority” studies would have faded into obscurity; however, history refuses to re- lent, and irony now informs university administrations that a “black” presence is essential to its social and intellectual credibility. ‘Asa poet and a scholar who makes a living teaching ata university and writing about literature and literacy, I never expected to be accepted by most of my university colleagues. This was a given when T began my stud- ies, since Afro-American literature was not considered significant in the annals of “great” literature. I was indifferent to this exclusion because I understood that the drcam I was pursuing was beyond the limitations of cultural conventions. Te was necessary during those years of study to develop one’s own the- retical approach to literature and language. Because there were few the- oretical and methodological restrictions on his nascent field of study, black studies provided the intellectual freedom that was constrained in the traditional disciplines. At the same time, the absence of philosophical constraint was problematic for persons incapable of registering an ideo- logical perspective without a “school of thought.” Additionally, because of institutional racism and ideological rigidity, the academy continued to discount the validity of the field. Consequently, the cultural nationalist re- sponse was “political” in racial terms. Much of that scholarship is polem- ical, highly subjective, and lacking in disciplined acuity. ‘Other black scholars, attempting to distance themselves from the na- tionalists (and activists) and to promote their careers, responded whole- 206 Melba Joyce Boyd heartedly to academic conformity. They approached Afro-American lter- ature and language with the severity of an iron brace or a chastity belt— dismantling the elements of composition without regard to creative indi- Viduality or thematic intentions. They appropriated critical dogma to decompose the political consciousness in the literature and the black ex- perience, These experts on black thought approached the experience my- ‘opically, disregarded the value of the tangible, and pursued a discursive vocabulary foreign to the literature and experience of the people. This is currently regarded as genius. Because the academy remains intellectually and institutionally racist and, in most instances, only rhetorically committed to the field of black studies, these survival strategies continue to dominate much of our intel- lectual decisions. Consciously, or unconsciously, a need to secure our- selves in hostile territory results in consulting the tyranay of theories for justification. ‘The cultural nationalists recognize that our dubious presence is relative to the black community and garner support by espousing a theory that promotes “blackness” as the center of their universe and the antithesis of “whiteness.” It is complementary, and in these unnerving times, Afrocen- trism provides a belief system of certainty and an ego boost in response to the repression and socioeconomic decline affecting black people. Cur- rently, reactionary nationalism has entrenched all sectors of ethnic com- ‘munities in America, whereby strategic retreat has resulted in paranoid, insular thinking and internalized hatred—even hysteria—as political pol. icy. Anti-Semitism is on the rise and is pivotal to the propaganda of the right (including the black right). At the same time, the elitist scholars who lead the academic power ‘game via the Ivy League have exploited the limitations and ideology of the profession as they act out trickster theory and practice to secure posh po- sitions and Iucrative speaking fees. They also pose as the gatekeepers of Afro-American culture and, to a large extent, determine who gets pub- lished and financed by the white establishment. But, as the select few exert their privilege, the distance between these scholars and the black commu- nity is so vast in interest and experience that the “revolutionary” inten- tions of the student strikes in 1968 appear only as historical aberrations in their rhetorical inlations. ‘Meanwhile, there are those scholars who have cked outa less grandiose path in academe, producing research grounded in the aesthetics of our blues culeuz, in full view of a need to present our expressions and experi- Afrocentrics, Afro-elitists, and Afro-eccentrics 207 cences in their respective and expansive planes of intellectual and universal intersections. These cultural workers are not concerned with impressing the exponents of Eurocentric thought by example or by insisting on a black ‘fegemony that finds legitimacy in an ancient slave-holding society. In con- ‘rast, activist scholars are rooted in the wisdom and power of a people who invented songs and spirits capable of transcending time and space to in- spire revolutions throughout centuries and continents. For sure, American slaves did not aspire to return to an Egypt in America or in Aftica. Unfortunately, the student struggles of the sixties and persistent dis- crimination in higher education encouraged reactionary politics and pro- pelled the most vocal into prominence. Consequently, black studies was isolated from the core curriculum, and racism in the public sector further estranged the discipline by denying its value in public school education or its relevancy to other areas of intellectual inquiry and social life. Howev- cx, with the recent crisis in ou cities of explosive juvenile delinquency, scholars of black studies are consulted to determine why and how such grave circumstances exist and, more, to seek solutions. ‘Afrocentrism rose to prominence in the nineties because it provides a conventional explanation to chaos: a lack of identity and a need for black male role models. According to the Afrocentries, the adoption of a con- sciousness centered in all things African creates “true” identity, develops self-esteem, and instills values from a worldview that founded the frst civ- ilization on the planet. Clearly, academe needs to balance its curriculum with 2 more encompassing world history. But in the Afrocentric haste to discard all things European or American they have also discarded that. which is uniquely Afro-American. ‘Afro-American cultural thought has altered Old World thought in Europe and Africa. It embraces the egalitarian values of West African agrarian-based societies, the democratic consensus systems and structures reflected in traditional Native American communities, and the radicalism of the labor movement. What the Afrocentrists fail to realize, in their quest to claim civilization, is that our struggle, fundamentally and above all els, is for freedom for the common people. We do not desire to be the “new” aristocracy. Monarchies were not democracies. We aspire toa new society that does not worship royalty, racial hierarchies, gold, corporate power, or any other manifestation that demeans the human spirit. ‘To transcend the conventions of power and dogmatism while pursuing freedom and democracy is a difficult and arduous task. It entails an inter- play of class, race, and gender issues in past and present struggles. Un- 208 Melba Joyce Boyd doubted, the dream of freedom is ingrained in the memory of slavery, and icisa struggle as ancient as the Euphrates River, Furthermy scent. We are a multicultural people whose expressions and experiences have evolved from Africa, Asia, Europe, and, most specifically, the Amer. icas. This fusion has created an eclectic cultute, a jazz ideology. Its not a linear extension of Africa or simply the sum ofits past parts. Through its dissidence, invention, and reinvention, new imaginings thrive. To ignore the diversity that resides within us is to deny the very essence that signa. ‘ures our humanity. In a momentary digression I might add that any discussion about ‘melanin and intelligence” or “sun and ice people” should be conducted by albinos and include the cultural perspective of the Inuit people. Clear- 4y, anyone who would purport such a chess failed freshman biology and hhas not read any of the recent studies in DNA, which blast modern racial theories back to the nineteenth-century period where they belong, More important, these extreme developments in biack studies should be consid red in tandem with the fundamentalist momentum that is sweeping the country in the face of economic and social ctisis. It is obvious that even common sense is failing inquiry when one submits to the severity of such thoughts, which, like an occult science, simplify complexity and advocate Superstition and fear. To enlist skin color to justify bigotry is not novel but rather demonstrates the way internalized oppression can create intense re- sentment that overrules intellectual and moral integrity. Actually, Inever expected the discipline to arrive at this poine of ideo- logical warfare, This kind of bickering plays into the hands of the ruling

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