Diverse’s The Academy Speaks

By Dr. Marybeth Gasman

On May 12, 2008, as I was walking down the street in Atlanta, Georgia, I happened to glance at the newspaper stand.  I was shocked to see the headline “White Valedictorian Makes Morehouse History” on the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  I have to admit that my initial reaction was “geesh, can’t African Americans have anything of their own?”  However, after thinking about the news and talking with quite a few Morehouse graduates, I changed my mind — at least in part.  Joshua Packwood, from the interview I watched on CNN, seems like a good man with strong intellectual skills.  Morehouse College, the only black college dedicated to the education of African American males in the nation, can be proud of his accomplishments.

Thinking about a White Valedictorian at a Black college gives us an opportunity to contemplate what can be learned from this situation. 

First, an excellent educational institution can attract the best students regardless of their race and the institution’s racial make-up.  I have long doubted this idea as I have experienced White racism toward Black organizations and institutions again and again. Joshua Packwood’s choice of Morehouse gives a glimmer of hope to the nation that race relations are changing.

Second, as Harvard Sociologist Charles Willie said years ago, White students attending Black colleges can help alleviate racial misunderstanding.  Students like Joshua Packwood gain exposure to the diversity within Black culture and in effect, serve as ambassadors to the White community, helping to dispel racist myths.

Third, Black colleges nurture and support students regardless of their race.  We would be hard pressed to say this about many historically White colleges and universities and their treatment of Black students.  I know quite a few White students who have attended Black colleges and the majority of them say that they were treated with respect and supported in their pursuit of academic degrees.  

Fourth, Whites who complain about African Americans who succeed within historically White institutions, thinking that an African American win is their loss, should take a page from Morehouse College’s notebook.  Instead of seeing Joshua Packwood’s success as a setback for Blacks, the college’s students and leadership embraced Packwood, publicly acknowledging him as a Morehouse man and expressing their pride.

Fifth, although Morehouse College has a long history and strong reputation, there are still many who are not aware of the contributions that Black colleges have made and continue to make in the nation.  Having a “first,” in this case a White valedictorian, brings positive attention to Morehouse and Black colleges as a whole.

Despite these lessons learned, I continue to wonder why the past African American valedictorians of Morehouse College haven’t received the same kind of national media attention as Joshua Packwood.  Given the small numbers of African American men graduating from college, each and every one of Morehouse College’s best students ought to be celebrated.

Dr. Marybeth Gasman is an associate professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania.

By Dr. James Moore, III

In recent popular publications, such as Newsweek and New Republic, the gender equity discourse has changed focused. In these magazines, the authors suggest that girls are no longer educationally disadvantaged, due to their academic successes throughout the educational pipeline. These publications further suggest that boys are now the disadvantaged group, due to their declining academic performance. After reading these publications, one may leave thinking that decades of efforts to improve school outcomes for girls have come at the expense of boys.

Recently, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) unveiled a landmark report entitled, Where the Girls Are: The Facts about Gender Equity in Education Sparking a National Debate. It uses national data (i.e., NAEP scores, SAT scores, ACT scores, and high school grade point averages) to highlight girls’ educational outcomes in the last 35 years. In this report, its authors (Christianne Corbette, Catherine Hill and Andresse St. Rose) focus on the relationships between girls’ and boys’ academic progress. The authors use national data to examine educational trends for these two groups in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary settings.

After reading Where the Girls Are, it is clear that AAUW produced this report to shatter the notion that boys are disadvantaged educationally, because of girls. The report reveals that girls in general have made significant educational gains, as well as boys. There was not any significant differences between the two groups’ education progress, when you examined within group data. However, the report did reveal clear differences based on race/ethnicity and family income. For example, African American and Hispanic students - both girls and boys - scored significantly lower than their White and Asian American counterparts.

Based on these findings, both race and class have once again emerged as salient variables. Like many other studies, I was disappointed that the report did not develop this part of the document. To me, the authors missed an opportunity to expand the discourse beyond issues of girls. How might we expand this discourse to capture the authentic voices of people of color (boys and girls) and low-income populations? How can organizations, such as AAUW, help facilitate this dialogue among educators, researchers, and policy makers? If the report focused only on women and the different ethnic groups in America, what story would the same data tell? And, how would the narrators (or authors) tell the story?

In my opinion, racism and classism are alive and well in American society. I see them play out a lot in the lives of so many. This is clear, based on my research (see my website: http://www/education.osu.edu/jmoore).  I look forward to engaging you in civil dialogue on the aforementioned questions.

 Dr. James Moore, III is director of the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male at The Ohio State University.

By Alfred Brophy

The blogosphere is lighting up with discussion of Washington University’s decision to award an honorary degree to Phyllis Schlafly. Sometimes those decisions are controversial; at other times, they are something that everyone agrees on. That reminds me of one of my university’s excellent decisions on an honorary degree, which it awarded back in 2006 to art collector and benefactor Paul R. Jones. The University of Delaware houses much of his collection of African American Art.

But first a step back in time to the 1930s Alabama. It was one of Jones’ childhood aspirations to play football for the Crimson Tide. Alas, that was not to be. Instead, he played for Alabama State. In the 1940s, when Jones was a student at Howard University, he applied to the University of Alabama’s law school and was denied admission because of his race. That didn’t stop him, however; he went on to a successful career as a businessman in Atlanta, then to work in the Nixon administration, and even a run for Congress in 1982 (as a Republican). At one point in the 1970s, Dr. Jones was in the federal government’s education department and approved a large grant to the University of Alabama for adult education. He never mentioned his history with the university at that point–he just did something that was forward-looking and positive. Though that did not mean that he had forgotten his history with the university; in fact, he saved the law school’s letter to him.

In 2004 the University of Alabama and Dr. Jones began a partnership that involved a show of some of his art collection in Tuscaloosa; that was followed by a generous gift by friends of the university for a scholarship for needy students in his name. And this culminated in his giving a commencement address in August 2006, along with an honorary degree. Even there, Dr. Jones did not talk about the past; he chose instead to talk about the graduates, their families, and the future. It was a moment of a gesture to make amends for the past and to build something better for the future.

The image above is Romare Bearden’s School Time Bell.

By Alfred Brophy

I’ve been talking about our memory of the era of slavery some here of late. Perhaps you’ll be interested in this.

Back in the 1930s the United Daughters of the Confederacy put up a statue dedicated to Hayward Shepard, an African American man who was killed at Harper’s Ferry. He was the first person killed in John Brown’s raid.

The monument reads

On the night of October 16, 1859, Heyward Shepard, an industrious and respected colored freeman was mortally wounded by John Brown’s raiders in pursuance of his duties as an employee of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. He became the first victim of the attempted insurrection.

This boulder is erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans as a memorial to Heyward Shepherd, exemplifying the character and faithfulness of thousands of negroes who, under many temptations through subsequent years of war, so conducted themselves that no stain was left upon a record which is the peculiar heritage of the American people, and an everlasting tribute to the best on both races.

Now, why did the UDC put this up? The idea was that if they could show that slaves and free blacks wouldn’t join Brown’s rebellion that slavery wasn’t so bad. If free blacks wouldn’t join, it would show that they were on the side of the slaveholders rather than the violent abolitionists.

This, of course, was controversial. The NAACP protested against it, because it suggested that the slaves accepted their lot and benefited, perhaps even liked, slavery. Of course, while some saw him as devil, an abolitionist nut who fomented Civil War, others saw him as a hero. W.E.B. DuBois proposed a counter-monument to the Heyward Shepard monument in 1932, which would read:

Here / John Brown / Aimed at human slavery / A Blow / That woke a guilty nation. / With him fought / Seven slaves and sons of slaves. / And 4,000,000 freemen / Singing / “John Brown’s body lies a mouldering in the grace / But his Soul goes marching on!” / In gratitude this Tablet is erected / The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People / May 21, 1932.

Still, the town put up the monument. It remained on display until the 1980s when, during renovations, it was removed. You know what? It’s back up again, though this time with a plaque that helps put it into context. I think that’s probably the best possible result: let visitors to Harper’s Ferry know that these sentiments existed and that they were part of an attempt to re-write the history of slavery. Unfortunately, that attempt was pretty successful. And that deserves a post all its own.

If you’re interested in learning more about this, you might enjoy a book by Teresa S. Moyer and Paul A. Shackel called The Making of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream. I wrote a review of it recently for H-Net, which is available here.

The photograph of “John Brown’s Fort” by Marsha Wassel is from the National Park Service’s website on Harper’s Ferry.

By Lamont Flowers

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education’s interview with Dr. Houston Baker, “Literary Scholar Indicts Some Black Thinkers for Shallow Works,” was very informative in that it enables all of us to think more critically about our work and what is the real impact of our scholarship. The interview also encourages researchers and scholars who focus on the African American experience to consider some of the pressing challenges facing scholarship about African American history and life as well as the role of academic freedom.

More importantly, I believe that the interview uncovers probably a more critical issue that may potentially impact the production of scholarship on African Americans - the underrepresentation of scholars writing about and conducting research on issues related to understanding and improving the quality of life for African Americans. In essence, the interview points clearly to the importance of encouraging scholars, who are able and willing, to mentor the next generation of scholars and problem solvers. Producing and mentoring new scholars will ensure that there will be a variety of people, with different cultural lenses and scholarly approaches, to examine the African American experience in education, housing, politics, economics, criminal justice, music, media, philosophy, etc.

I contend that an increase in the number of scholars who study issues related to African American issues and race relations may also improve the number and utility of approaches for enhancing the well-being of the Black community in America. Moreover, this next generation of scholars may also lead to the type of diversity in thinking that may provide the best defense against the myriad of theoretical, evidence-based, scholarly, and practical topics, issues, and concerns that decrease opportunities and defers the dreams of many African Americans.

By Alfred Brophy

We continue to hear lots of talk about antislavery and proslavery law–it’s in part a response to the growing discussion of reparations. William Merkel of Washburn University’s law school has a new article out on “Jefferson’s Failed Anti-Slavery Proviso of 1784 and the Nascence of Free Soil Constitutionalism.”

By James Ewers

Thank goodness we live in a country where we can freely vote.  It is something that we should not take for granted as we only have to look at other countries to see the chaos that has occurred because of voting or the lack of it.  Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent your vote has counted in the Buckeye State so far this year.  Obviously it will count again in the Fall when the general election is held.  With many of the caucuses and primaries now in the distant past, I would offer that we had more people voting in them than ever.  For example young people voted in record numbers and all of the candidates benefitted from this increase.  There has been so much build up to this primary season.  You only have to look at the amount of hoopla that surrounded the primaries held in North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  Voting has simple dominated the news coverage for some months now.  Unless something really strange happens we know that John McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee for president.  He has pretty much been able to watch the top Democratic candidates fight it out for the votes of the American people.  Of course we know that some months ago, John Edwards dropped out of the race and it left Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to convince the American public who on the Democratic side is best suited for the most important position in the world and that is president of the United States of America.  I will say more about John Edwards later.  While we all have our favorite Democratic candidate, we have to admire both Clinton and Obama.  They are both convincing and highly skilled orators able to deliver their message of hope and opportunity.

The media has absolutely been enthralled with both campaigns on the Democratic side while the Republican nominee, John McCain has not gotten as much national coverage.  Each day that Clinton and Obama campaign is a day that history is being made.  While there have been other women and other African Americans to run for president, none have captured the hearts and minds of Americans like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I never thought that in my lifetime, I would see a serious bid by a woman and an African American to become president.  It is simply unbelievable to me!  In my quiet moments, I consider how far America has come.  It is without debate that women and people of color have travelled a long and difficult road to get to this point. 

I think many of us get caught up in the Clinton and Obama battle because it has been so testy and fiercely contested.  Before we lose perspective let us just remember this couldn’t have happened in previous years.  The momentum for each candidate has been hanging in the balance with every caucus and primary.  The political pundits have gone back and forth about Barack’s strengths and Hillary’s strengths.  I have been watching the presidential elections for years and I have never seen so many women and people of color as political commentators.  Every time that I see Roland Martin on CNN, I say, “go boy”!

With the closeness of every contest, it means that every vote literally does count.  You only have to take a look at the Guam primary which Barack Obama won by a grand total of seven votes.  The news about each campaign becomes more compelling as the days go by.  Just the other night Hillary Clinton defeated Barack Obama pretty handily in West Virginia.  However not to be outdone on Wednesday Barack Obama introduced John Edwards while campaigning in Michigan.  And of course Edwards gave an enthusiastic endorsement of Barack Obama.  So the delegates that Hillary won and the delegates that Edwards has have almost cancelled each other out.  It makes Clinton’s victory in West Virginia not as sweet.  So in many ways it looks like from a practical viewpoint that all eyes are on Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for president.  I know some are pinching themselves. However, all indicators suggest Obama will be the party’s choice.  While all of the momentum is on Obama’s side, there is no quit in Hillary Clinton.  So let us give her high marks.

Having given great “props” to Hillary Clinton, I believe the nomination is in sight for Barack Obama.  It is the thinking of many that his victory in North Carolina and his narrow defeat in Indiana provided him with an insurmountable lead.  Of course Michigan and Florida are still on the outside looking in, but that will be fixed before the Democratic convention.  So when we have to vote, let us remember that every vote counts.  Just ask the citizens of Guam!

If you’ve been following the reparations movement of late, you’ve likely seen talk of the lawsuits filed back in 2002 in federal courts around the country.  They were consolidated in the Northern District of Illinois in front of Judge Norgle.  The name of the case was In re African American Slave Descendants Litigation.  Whew, that’s a mouthful.

Lolita Buckner Inniss of Cleveland State University’s Law School has recently posted a paper analyzing Judge Norgle’s 2006 opinion dismissing the case.  (So maybe I should have titled this post, Buckner Inniss on anti-reparations rhetoric.)  Her abstract is as follows:

In this paper I apply critical legal rhetoric to the judicial opinion rendered in response to the Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Second Amended and Consolidated Complaint in ‘In Re African American Slave Descendants’, a case concerning the efforts of a group of modern-day descendants of enslaved African-Americans to obtain redress for the harms of slavery. The chief methodological framework for performing critical legal rhetorical analysis comes from the work of Marouf Hasian, Jr. particularly his schema for analysis which he calls substantive units in critical legal rhetoric.  Critical legal rhetoric is a potent tool for exposing the way in which the public ideologies of society and the private ideologies of jurists, legislators and other legal actors are manifested in legal and law-like pronouncements. After introducing this case, I briefly tracing the evolution and meaning of the term rhetoric and examine the relationship between rhetoric and law. I next explore the connection between rhetoric and ideology, which is crystallized in the form of the ideograph and its use as a tool of what is known as critical rhetoric.  Finally, I show how critical legal rhetoric is achieved by bringing critical rhetoric to law, and thereafter apply critical legal rhetoric to the case of ‘In Re African American Slave Descendants’.

You can download the paper here for free.

Alfred Brophy

By James Ewers

 Tavis Smiley’s “The Covenant With Black America” has been out a couple of years and it, along with the the companion book entitled “The Covenant in Action,” is a must read if you are interested in grass roots change.  As many of you will recall, Tavis Smiley had a talk show with Black Entertainment Television some years ago.  He parted ways with BET and went on to distinguish himself in public television and public radio along with being a regular contributor to the Tom Joyner Morning Show.  It is my thinking that this book, The Covenant, rose out of The State of The Black Union, of which Smiley is keenly involved. This day long program had its beginning in 2000 and has been going strong ever since that time. The premise of the program is to extol black people to take responsibility for their lives in all areas. 

Many African Americans like me grew up in an unequal South yet we never felt unequal.  Growing up in Winston-Salem, N.C., I always thought that I would be successful at something; I just didn’t know what that would be.  This attitude and belief of success that I had I must firmly attribute to my mom and dad.  I have no doubt in my mind that had it not been for God and for my parents, I would have been a statistic, a bad one. 

Early on in The Covenant, we are issued a clarion call by Marian Wright Edelman, leader of the Children’s Defense Fund.  She writes, “Black children are disproportionately denied a fair chance and are disproportionately poor. An un-level playing field from birth contributes to many black children getting pulled into a cradle-to-prison-to-death pipeline that we must dismantle if the clock of racial and social progress is to not turn backwards.”  Some will argue with the veracity of Wright Edelman’s statements.  However the question for many of us is, how do we prepare our children to face this world?  Marian Wright Edelman in her statement of purpose says, “The Covenant With Black America calls upon all parents, educators, preachers, social service providers, community leaders and policy-makers to act now and create a brighter future for our children.”  If you are in the aforementioned group, you are on call 365 days a year.

This book has ten specific covenants and they are as follows:  Covenant I: Securing The Right To Healthcare and Well-Being, Covenant II: Establishing A System Of Public Education In Which All Children Achieve At High Levels and Reach Their Full Potential, Covenant III: Correcting The System of Unequal Justice, Covenant IV: Fostering Accountable Community-Centered Policing, Covenant V: Ensuring Broad Access To Affordable Neighborhoods That Connect to Opportunity, Covenant VI: Claiming Our Democracy, Covenant VII: Strengthening Our Rural Roots, Covenant VIII: Accessing Good Jobs, Wealth, and Economic Prosperity, Covenant IX: Assuring Environmental Justice For All and Covenant X: Closing The Racial Digital Divide.  My reasoning for going to great length to list each covenant is simply that it may compel you to go out and purchase this book or to check it out at your local library.  My hope is that there will be such a groundswell that library officials will have to order several copies of the book.  Please prove me right!

There are throughout the book some themes that resonate, self-love and personal responsibility chief among them. Loving yourself is the key to loving others.  It is impossible to give love when you don’t have love.  While it may sound simplistic, self-love leads to a healthy self-concept which then brings on a can-do attitude.  One of the most over-used expressions at least since I have been around is “your attitude determines your altitude.”  Attitude and love go together. While some may disagree, we cannot wallow and fester in blame as this mindset has already destroyed many of us.  We use it as an excuse not to achieve our goals and our dreams.  We can do better and we must! 

In Covenant II, Edmund G. Gordon says, “Education starts at home, in neighborhoods, and in communities. Reading to children, creating time and space for homework and demonstrating through words and deeds that education is important are the key building blocks for high education attainment.”  It is hard to disagree with this statement.  There are many school systems across the country that are becoming more parent-friendly.  Parents, love providers and schools need one another.  When all of us get that message we will be better off.  As parents, we must make ourselves viable, visible and valuable in our schools.

So as you get ready for summer, pick up this book because it does provide you with a blueprint for what needs to be done.  Pass this message on, and as Tavis Smiley always says, “keep the faith.”

By James Ewers

If you don’t have your health then you don’t have anything is an expression that I have heard for many years.  As I grow closer to eating free in some restaurants, I am paying closer attention.  Reports suggest that black people get sick more often and die sooner.  While some would groan, I think it is what we put in our bodies and how we treat them.  Everything that tastes good isn’t necessarily good for you.  Those of us who grew up in the South had our share of tasty dishes.  Personally, I can’t remember too many weeks when my mom didn’t have neck bones, pig feet, chitterlings or ox tails on the table.  She put her own brand of seasoning on them and my dad and I had a field day.  I can’t tell you the last time I had a neck bone or some trotters (pig feet).  Have my taste buds gone sour and my eating habits changed?  I think so.  There are some foods now that I just don’t eat anymore.  I think this goes for a lot of African Americans.  There are some compelling reasons for this change.  We suffer in large numbers from high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease and high cholesterol.  Obesity for many people who look like me starts at an early age.  “Obesity is a huge problem,” Dr. Andrea Goings, a pediatrician in Toledo, Ohio, says in The Crisis Magazine.  I have seen what I believe to be too many overweight black kids.  There are some parents who think it’s rather cute to see their child stuff themselves with food.  Dr. Goings says parents will say “he doesn’t eat that much.”  In fact, she will learn later that “he eats a whole pizza”.

The National Center for Health statistics states that 69 percent of non-Hispanic black women are overweight compared to 47 percent of non-Hispanic white women. White men are 62 percent overweight compared to 58 percent of black men. All of us hear our doctors constantly tell us to watch our food intake and to exercise.  Every time I see my physician, my weight is always checked.  My weight at my doctor’s office and my weight on my scales at home is never the same.  I am probably willing my scales to say that I weigh less than I do.  Exercise is probably something that black people should do more.  Having some physical regime, even walking, is good for us.  Stacy Ann Mitchell, M.D., co-author with Teri D. Mitchell of the new book Livin Large, says, “You have to realize and accept that it’s your body, your health and your responsibility.”  I agree that it is our responsibility no matter how difficult it is to make a change if need be.  She adds, “You are fat because of what you do or don’t do.  Eating too much and exercising too little are the key reasons why you have a problem.  That may sound harsh, but it’s the truth.”

In a recent issue of The Crisis Magazine, heart disease is listed as the number one cause of death among African Americans.  It is estimated that more than 100,000 lives are lost per year due to this disease.  Paul Underwood, M.D., a Phoenix, Arizona cardiologist and president of the Association of Black Cardiologists says, “Risk factors aren’t controlled well in African Americans.  As a result, heart disease runs rampant in the community.”  So chances are that if our parents had heart problems then we’ll probably have them too.  However Underwood suggests that there is some hope for us.  He states, “You won’t be able to reverse it 100 percent, but if you get some risk factors under control, it will help.”

One of the major factors connected to heart disease is smoking, especially when you start at an early age.  Living for a large part of my life in the tobacco belt gave me a first-hand look at the harmful effects of tobacco use.  I had relatives who smoked, chewed tobacco and dipped snuff.  As a young boy, I even tried smoking for one week.  It was made to look fashionable and cool.  Cigarette advertisements were on a lot of billboards in Winston-Salem.  At one point during the heyday of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, our city upon entering it smelled like tobacco.  Popular opinion suggests that smoking is addictive and it is a sensitive subject for a number of African Americans.  Yet there are clinics, treatments and prescriptions for those who want to stop.  I do believe that taking the first step is the most important.  Encouragement and support from family members and love providers will help those who want to quit.  I have seen both sides of this equation; those who have stopped and unfortunately those who have died from it. 

So as black folks, we must take better care of ourselves.  We can’t be afraid to go to our doctor.  Exercise is not optional but a requirement.  No matter how good those ribs are, we can’t eat half of the slab and then complain about feeling dizzy.  Good health is an important issue for all Americans, both black and white.  It’s just that black people have more health problems and because of them, our time on the planet is not as long.