Headline: STUDENTS
FLUNK TEST ON RACISM
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman
Publication: ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Oct. 27, 1991
Section: NEWS, Page: 4B, Edition: LATE FIVE STAR
WHEN DOES Afrocentrism go too far?
The question is
being debated in Washington right now, as academics and others ponder an incident
that involved a white woman who was hired to teach a course on black history
at a community college. The woman, Nina Gilden Seavey, is a specialist in African-American
history, and has served as a consultant on a variety of television documentaries
on black Americans. She also is director for the Center for History in the Media
at George Washington University.
Seavey,
who wasn't teaching any courses this semester, was approached by the community
college and asked to teach the course.
On her first day
of class, she entered a classroom that was about 90 percent black. That wasn't
unexpected, she said, since the school is in a predominantly black neighborhood.
But she didn't expect what happened next.
''They
were at first shocked and appalled, '' Seavey said in an interview. ''They seemed
to think that either they [were or I was in the wrong place.''
Seavey
said she decided to be straightforward, telling the students - most of whom
were about 18 years old - that, yes, she was white, but she also was interested
in and knowledgeable about her subject.
That
didn't appease the students. Several immediately told her that they did not
believe that a white woman should teach a black studies course. Seavey told
the class that the color of one's skin had nothing to do with the quality of
one's mind.
Dissatisfied
with her response, the students became increasingly hostile and made it clear
that not only did they not want anything to do with her, they also had no interest
in the black scholars that she planned to discuss in the course, including John
Blassingame, C. Vann Woodward and Lerone Bennett Jr. The students also told
her that they were not interested in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because,
said one student, peaceful resistance was out.
The
students argued that she could not teach the course because she could not possibly
understand the oppression that blacks have gone through in America. Seavey responded
that while she was not black, she understood oppression: Her Jewish aunts and
uncles had been forced to dig their own graves and were promptly shot by Nazis
in Eastern Europe.
But
the students persisted and, to avoid creating racial tensions on the campus,
she withdrew from teaching the course.
The incident raises
the question: If we insist upon only people of particular races or ethnic groups
to teach certain courses, aren't we just creating academic ghettos, where not
only whites will be banned from teaching black history, but blacks will be banned
from teaching European history, Native Americans will be banned from teaching
Chinese history, and so on?
Should
we insist that teaching African-American history be re legated to the oldest
among us, who have participated in a significant chunk of that history? How
far do we go?
The truth is,
being black alone doesn't qualify one to teach African-American history. While
some of my ancestors were brought over to America as slaves, I don't necessarily
have more information about that period in history than an expert on that period,
black, white or brown. History is not learned through osmosis.
Indeed,
there is a school of thought among some blacks that only black professors can
provide the sensitivity needed to teach such a course.
And yet others are suggesting that black professors can -
and should - teach such history from a certain political point of view.
Some
will argue that history courses are already taught from a Eurocentric point
of view. That argument may be valid. But the solution is to try to take points
of view out of the history books - good guys, bad guys and such - and try to
make history books and courses as apolitical as possible.
An insistence
that courses be taught from a political point of view is taking Afrocentrism
a step too far.
Black
students should gain as much knowledge as they possibly can about their history.
And the truth is, the school systems in this country have failed for years to
provide adequate African and African-American history. Such courses wouldn't
be necessary at all if those who write history books would include a complete
picture of blacks, not a selective one.
But
insisting that only black professors teach black history courses is not the
way to remedy the problem.
Instead, those who are concerned must insist that school
boards and universities offer multicultural curriculums. History books should
feature more than the George Washington Carvers and Martin Luther Kings of the
world. They should instead be thorough, and present a fair and balanced picture
of American and world history.
It's ironic that a group of black students at that community college in Washington chose to reject Seavey as a teacher simply because she was white. Those students, if anyone, should have a certain sensitivity to being rejected solely on the basis of color.
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