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May 27, 2004
Fort Greene Revenge
About 12 years ago, when the hottest jam on the radio was Black Sheep's 'The Choice is Yours' I happened to be a house party in Ft. Greene with the kind of cool people I used to party with those days. Among them was a young brother who was an Assistant Professor at some non-trivial university. The brother had dreads, a PhD and a 70k gig.
The topic drifted to the kinds of problems black folks who come correct have with ordinary white folks. It's an old subject I think best written up by Brent Staples in his 'Parallel Lines'. While Brent was a PhD Candidate at the U of Chicago, he used to purposely sneak up on dainty whitefolks and give them a fright. This particular brother said something about black power that I had never heard before, and it's something I never forgot. He had to get into one of these upper middle class white kids parents face over some bullshit. And his bottom line went something like this: All your entire life, you have been working hard and climbing in society for what? You saved your money for years and years and put all your hopes into your child's education. You and thousands of others compete for years on end to get good SAT scores. Then your kid competes with all the rest from across the country and around the world, just to get your kid into my class. So think very carefully about what you say to me because I am the man whose grade can make the difference between success and failure for what you've been claiming as your values all your life.
In my entire life I have never imagined in any black on white revenge fantasy so sweet as that. You cannot buy grades at university, and there is nothing rich white bigots can do but burst their own blood vessels when it comes to dealing with black professors. I know there have been some black profs who get off on this kind of power trip, but thankfully that's a world of politics I don't have to deal with. I say get your tenure and go buck wild. In the meantime, not for the black power trip, but out of real respect for what it take to go that length past achievement and social climbing to true excellence and scholarship we ought to keep this man's lesson in mind. Everybody in America has to come face to face with this 'elitism', black and white alike.
There are people who know, and there are people who don't. Props needs to go to those who do know; that work is real.
Posted by mbowen at May 27, 2004 12:03 PM
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