Black scholars whose concern for Black America’s well being shows up in their classroom teaching, research, authorships and others aspects of their work sometimes are discouraged from following those pursuits, perhaps especially by colleagues at non-Black institutions where a Eurocentric education has long been the norm.
That was the broad consensus of several prominent African American academics—from a mix of Ivy League, historically Black and other universities—featured last week at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s annual National Action Network conference.
The panelists’ official topic for discussion was “Crisis of the Black Intelligentsia.” Under that theme, however, they tackled such wide-ranging subjects as how arguably elitist is the “public intellectual” label to how scholars and like-minded others, during the final leg of Barack Obama’s presidency, might help push politicians to address The Great Recession-driven, record-breaking decline in Black wealth and other pressing matters of Black life.
“What does racial justice look like at the end of the Obama era?” asked Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, a professor at Columbia University Law School and the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. “Thinkers and activists and stakeholders need to put together an agenda … “
In a New York City hotel conference room brimming mainly with Blacks but also some non-Blacks from various walks of professional and community life, hers was among comments eliciting bursts of applause and, here and there, an “amen.”
It came as each of the six panelists offered their take on the triumphs and trials of being a Black scholar who views Black issues on equal par as White ones. Also, it came as the scholars shared their perspectives on the dangers of assessing people’s value based upon their academic pedigree—or lack of college degrees—their workplace and their wallet.
“I’m just a dude from Brooklyn and the Bronx doing the work,” said Dr. Christopher Emdin, a Columbia University Teachers College professor noted for his academic focus on hip-hop music and for deploying rap to teach, among other subjects, science. “I’ve been this way … I was a [Black] leader way before I had a PhD.”
