Letters To The Editor

Black Issues in Higher Education, March 4, 1999

Gates and His "Harvard Fetish"

Dear Editor

Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. styled himself as an "intellectual entrepreneur" (see Black Issues, Feb. 4). Notwithstanding the loose form of the word "intellectual," he is nothing of the kind.

Entrepreneur? Sure. But there is nothing of the intellectual in the context that motivates his colossal efforts. I cannot, and would not, deny that his "institution building" is impressive and necessary. He is to be congratulated. But neither in his work, nor in his interviews, nor in the terms by which he justifies his interest in institutions, has he addressed the questions of a Black humanity defined on its own terms, confirmed by a universal principle of justice.

Instead, professor Gates petitions the "dominant culture," in his own established terms, to validate Black humanity. That is, he has in no way altered the terms of acceptance of this validation, but has sought to meet them -- whatever they are -- without the relevant questions concerning justice. This may appear to be a small question, but I believe it is the largest question facing Black people in America -- and Americans, in general. The obsession with producing a coequal "canon" to the European supposes that canonisity is a legitimate signifier of humanity, and it distributes the products of Black intelligence under the very intellectual prerogatives which excluded it in the first place.

My difficulty is therefore not with the Encarta [Africana] or any other of the products. Rather, it is the context, or absence thereof, in which they have been presented. Another way of looking at my point is the terms of reference Professor Gates employs when speaking of his program: "the Dream Team" or, hideously, "its like playing with the Bulls" or the unfortunate references to Drs. Cornel West and William Julius Wilson -- one purportedly having left a "kingdom," the other having left an "empire." These are curious words for one whose work is meant to address the nature of language and its implicit saying concerning power. Gates' "Harvard fetish" and colonial impulse toward other programs in the field, together with the absence of context mentioned before, suggests that he has not yet come to terms with his humanity in the "hothouse" of American humanities.

Dr. Gilbert N.M.O. Morris,
director, African American studies,
George Mason University

`Educational and Empowering'

Dear Editor:

I have been reading

Black Issues In Higher Education

for the last nine years, and I must say I have been enjoying every part of the issues it covers. I find it very educational and empowering. Keep up the good work!

Gezai Berhane,
assistant director, Center for Student
Involvement, California State
University-San Marcos