Dr Boyce’s Thoughts on Syracuse University President Nancy Cantor

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

I got a call from an academic colleague who was caught in the middle of a public controversy. He stated an unpopular opinion on race and the right wing got upset with his words. Public figures have been calling for him to be fired, stating that his position as a defender of black people makes him a “reverse racist.” How typical.

He told me that this morning, he received a call from the President of his university, letting him know that the campus stands by his academic freedom and freedom of speech. The president also admitted that this is “what right wing nut jobs do when they are confronted with race.”

I was admittedly jealous of my friend’s relationship with the president of his university. In the 5 years I’ve known the president of Syracuse University, Nancy Cantor, not once has she had a single conversation with me over the phone or in person. This makes me sad because we could have been great allies. I’ve supported Cantor publicly when people have called for her head. But yet, she has never once reached out to me to express any kind of support for my academic freedom and has only stood by silently as campus officials have worked overtime to ostracize my work and single me out in stereotypical ways (I wish I could tell you all the stories – but I can’t tell them all right now). Syracuse has a history of this kind of behavior toward progressive black men, but I refuse to spend my life bowing to racial ignorance. In fact, the conversation I plan to have on these issues is just beginning, and it’s one I will continue to have for the next 30 years if necessary. We should not allow our brothers and sisters in the academy to remain enslaved by the academic imperialism taking place at universities who feel compelled to “train” African American scholars on “appropriate” ways to view the world.  Anyone who can’t connect this unscholarly behavior with America’s sick racial past is himself/herself a victim of that very same past.

Rather than trying to figure out why there are so many people who support what I do, there are some who would rather fear that which is different. When I read about the life of my second cousin, Muhammad Ali, I see a world in which everyone chastised and attacked him without realizing that there was an opportunity to see a vision that could change the world (of course no one will admit that they persecuted Ali, nor will they admit how much they hated Martin Luther King). While I am not sure if I am the person who can change the world, I am certain that my generation of progressive black scholars (Christopher Metzler, Marc Lamont Hill, Billy Hawkins) represents a line of thinking that will surely have the kind of scholarly impact that most academics will never have. I am not angry with the president of Syracuse University, I am only saddened. Instead of being life-long allies, America’s racism will now cause us to become long-time adversaries.  I don’t want such a battle, but the legacy of my forefathers dictates that such battles are a necessary component of our continued fight for true equality.  I embrace this fight with everything I’ve got, for (as Malcolm X told Muhammad Ali before his “unwinnable” fight with Sonny Liston) God did not take us this far to lose.

 

Technorati Tags: black scholars,black professors,african american scholars,african american professors