tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979743332482789681.post295877222432985460..comments2024-03-23T19:08:47.566-05:00Comments on ProjectHBW: Considering and Reconsidering Black Studies: A Dialogue Between Jerry Ward and Abdul AlkalimatThe HBW Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00757936955854084017noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979743332482789681.post-39726089547539977972015-01-18T14:14:50.973-06:002015-01-18T14:14:50.973-06:00The sentence that puzzles you is an assertion whic...The sentence that puzzles you is an assertion which was designed to puzzle and to provoke. We do not have to quibble about the words "revolutions" and "reforms" as long as we can agree those two words refer to the concept of change. It is my intention that the word "absurd" should be understood as it is operative in certain formulations of philosophy, particularly the philosophical discourse we call "existentialism." To recognize that change can be "very cruel" in the day to day conduct of higher education is a matter of being aware that some of the ideals of diversity can be mismanaged and lead to unfortunate outcomes."Deadly perversions of good intentions" occur when the most subtle,covert forms of hegemony result in psychological injury for certain groups of scholars and students. The injury, I hasten to note, is not always "racial," not always an outcome of playing the race card. The card may be one of gender, class, or hardcore economics. These notes about the words in my sentence will not minimize your sense of being puzzled. They only deepen my doubts that the so-called mainstream of American higher education has any genuine, innate and lasting respect for "Black intellectual and artistic production." That respect is a deferred dream which must be negotiated and renegotiated. The endless struggle for respect is a property of change itself rather than something caused by the emergence of Black Studies. Yes, the fight for Black Studies did open opportunities for women's studies, LGBT studies, ecological studies, and combinations of studies as yet unborn.<br /><br />If readers think my quarrel with change in American higher education and American society is an attack on Black Studies, I respect their right to disagree with my opinions. Meanwhile, I must move forward with work in spaces where academic and non-academic contexts clash more than they cooperate. I guess I am damned to be a maker of jigsaw puzzles.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />Jerry W. Ward, Jr.jwardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00629967356068612552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979743332482789681.post-10068722253437748532014-12-11T18:28:34.185-06:002014-12-11T18:28:34.185-06:00What continues to puzzle me is your sentence "...What continues to puzzle me is your sentence " Both reforms and revolutions often prove to be absurd, very cruel, and very deadly perversions of good intentions, especially in academic contexts." Isn't this the creation of Black Studies, and hasn't this increased the number of Black faculty and staff in mainstream institutions, and hasn't this pushed the mainstream to respect Black intellectual and artistic production. Our fight opened up the doors to many other areas like women's studies and LGBT studies. What so absurd about that? <br /><br />Of course we can quibble over words, like what is the difference between reform and revolution. But my main point is why attack the very heart and soul of the Black fight for freedom wherever and whenever we can carry it on. If Black students and the community had not brought the fight to campus we would not have had the great enrollment of Black in higher education, and furthermore it looks like we need that kind of activism again as the number stumble downward.<br /><br />Yes, of course, "acts of reading into acts of doing," the unity of theory and practice. On this we solidly agree, but for my views the campus need not be off limits.<br /><br />abdulabdul alkalimatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979743332482789681.post-16075611560527809842014-12-08T09:33:53.107-06:002014-12-08T09:33:53.107-06:00
I thank Professor Alkalimat for his polite and fo...<br />I thank Professor Alkalimat for his polite and focused response to my blog on reconsidering Black Studies. I do respect him and other colleagues for doing battle within the academy. Their efforts are brave and far from trivial. The main point of my blog was to provoke response about what might be done outside the academy by a larger number of people, especially people who are not affiliated with institutions of higher education.<br />In the final paragraph I tried to be specific about community action and to address my suggestions to a general audience:<br /><br />Your rereading of Introduction to Afro-American Studies and reading of African American Studies 2013 persuade you to maintain a more than safe distance between yourself and hyperbole about reform and revolution. Both reforms and revolutions often prove to be absurd, very cruel, and very deadly perversions of good intentions, especially in academic contexts. The best sites for manifesting Black Studies are the home, the neighborhood, the prayer house you attend weekly, organizations to which you pay dues or make charitable donations, the political circus wherever you live. In a global community damned to have an unknowable but adjustable future, Black Studies finds it permanence or sustainability in how you and others take matters into your own hands, transform acts of reading into acts of doing, and remember that Black Studies has life-affirming rather than death-bound universal imperatives.<br /><br />I believe that in our current century, it is necessary to hold fast to the original ideals of Black Studies paradigms.<br /><br /><br />Jerry W. Ward, Jr.<br />jwardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00629967356068612552noreply@blogger.com