NEW YORK – At a time when many see a reinforcement of racism and oppression, a panel of Black intellectuals at the National Action Network (NAN) convention spoke of being visible and vocal on important issues, producing ideas and creating dialogues.
“It’s so important we look beyond the daily headlines and look into what we’re really dealing with,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of NAN, said when introducing the “Black Intellectuals” panel Thursday afternoon.
Sharpton noted something repeated throughout the session – that intellectuals and activists should work together – and that intellectuals should document what is going on and preserve that information for future generations.
The panel moderator, Dr. Jamal Eric Watson, executive editor of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, posed the question: “What is the role of the Black intellectual in the age of Donald Trump?”
Dr. Tricia Rose of Brown University said that while Black studies grew out of political activism, today there is a higher challenge around connecting Black thinkers to work on the ground.
“We’ve been battling fake news as academics from the beginning,” she said. “This question of how we should engage has everything to do with how we retain a certain level of objectivity, a certain level of critical engagement—everything cannot be affirmative—but at the same time being willing to challenge the normalized modes of White supremacy that the academy continues to engage with. In the era of Trump, we have to be much more aggressive, much more committed to the moral responsibility that our work entails.”
Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., the William S. Todd Professor of Religion and Chair of the Center for African-American Studies at Princeton University said the work involves locating and interpreting problems and suggested that intellectuals uncover reality as it is – and as it could be.
