Subject: RE: Of Black Radicals, Artists and Tenured Negroes

Marvin, thanks for bringing to my attention both of these black studies groups.

Before I responded I googled the Georgia group, The National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) and the Philly group, The Center for African American Research and Public Policy (CAARPP).


The former (NCBS) considered themselves in the following manner:

"Growing fundamentally out of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, Africana/Black Studies has become the intellectual extension of that movement."

The latter (CAARPP) considered themselves:


"A think tank for African-American policy with plans for the future."



They (CAARPP) were initially funded with a $100,000 grant from black legislator, Rep. Dwight Evans, Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Committee and candidate for mayor of Philadelphia .



From what I can discern NCBS has more money than CAARP. By their membership fees NCBS seems to be able to take care of business. Their program for their March conference is is over 20 pages long. They publish two journals.



CAARPP publishes an annual report, "State of Black Philadelphia."



One can briefly conclude, despite their pretensions, that neither NCBS nor CAARP are radical organizations. They are not really the "intellectual extension" of any kind of movement. Most of their fundings are derived from conservative organizations and individuals. They are organizations of professionals. And thus by nature they are conservative black professionals.



And as you suggested, they neither live in the ghetto nor are they ghetto organizers. They are academy oriented and are thus only interested in "Black Liberation" as a scholarly topic. They are neither radical nor revolutionaries or offer political leadership for the ghetto or working class blacks.



Peace and love, Rudy



Rudolph Lewis, Editor

ChickenBones: A Journal

www.nathanielturner.com





> Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:43:22 -0700
> From: jmarvinx@yahoo.com
> Subject: Of Black Radicals, Artists and Tenured Negroes
> To: bbstring2@bellsouth.net; belriver@aol.com; bgreene@mec.cuny.edu; nhare@pacbell.net; drjuliahare@pacbell.net; goodnewspc@aol.com; amirib@aol.com; ubcindc@yahoo.com; nnorme01@temple.edu; rudolphlewis@hotmail.com; ramal.lamar@gmail.com; refa1@hotmail.com; lmandy@csulb.edu; drnobles@iasbflc.org; runoko@yahoo.com; alona3649@hotmail.com; lewistarika@yahoo.com; kam_williams@hotmail.com; KALAMU@aol.com; kheperashani@gmail.com; theblacklist@hotmail.com; phavia@hotmail.com; mstanfrd@temple.edu; msumchai@peralta.edu; lafrance.howard@temple.edu; falim@aol.com; NMAAHCinfo@si.edu
>
>
> Of Black Radicals, Artists and Tenured Negroes
>
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> Isn't is strange black radicals and artists will meet in May at Temple University in Philly to discuss Black Studies Forty Years Later? Ledby Muhammad Ahmed
> (Max Stanford) the radicals will have met after another faction of academic Negroes, The National Conference of Black Studies, led by Dr. Maulana Karenga, will meet in Atlanta, March 19-21. These are the grouping of tenured Negroes who have essentially controlled black studies over the past three decades. These Negroes have ruled during a time in which their vows to uplift the community were muted by death in the hood behavior of gangs, drugs, disease, school dropout rates, imprisonment and other factors overwhelmed whatever good they claimed on their watch. In fact, during their watch the concern of life in the hood was redirected toward a cause to save the diaspora superseded saving the hood. Pan Africanism took center field to the strident black nationalism upon which black studies originated in the last years of the 60s. Pan Africanism and Diaspora Studies seems more acceptable to the neo-colonial powers than black nationalism which is more often
> labeled narrow minded because of its focus on North American Africans as opposed to the broader vision of Pan Africanism, although we hear little about Africans or even Caribbean Africans being concerned about North American Africans. This broad, lopsided approach to focus on Pan Africanism has permitted North American Africans to defend the brutal regime of Mugabe in Zimbabwe and the neo-colonial South African regime of the ANC, which has caused continued suffering of the African masses, although Pan Africans have the gull to defend reactionary African regimes when we can see through their often paid in advance propaganda from the president for life dictators such as Mugabe, although he was once hailed as the hero of African liberation. We do not accept that land reform began twenty years after the revolution, and it may take longer in South Africa with the present political turmoil between the ANC and the new ANC splinter group led by Umbeki.
>
> Are there black nationalists in the house? Any North American Africans whose primary concern is with "nigguhs in the hood"? Forget about Obama, Mr. Black President, as he sails down the road to further imperialism with his Zionist cabinet, including Emaneul and Mz Clinton formerly of Jewyork.
>
> If you ain't for yourself, who will be for you? Mama and Daddy taught me charity begins at home and spreads abroad, or think globally but act locally. So where do we go from here? Obama gives us a moment to reflect, a moment of breathing space, maybe the calm before the storm when all the shit will hit the fan in the world of capitalism and slavery. We simply wonder will our intellectuals continue their other-worldism as Dr. Nathan Hare calls the Kemetic dreamers and Pan African romantics, unless we are planning a thousand year journey back to blackness. How in the hell can black American Pan Africans talk about Africa when their academic counterparts can't pick up Sonia Sanchez from the airport? Nor did they pick up Umar Ben Hasan of the Last Poets when they performed at San Francisco State University a few months ago. Ben Hasan had to call his folks from Oakland to pick him up for a gig at SFSU. Don't make me use the word from my next book: Ignut!
>
> In truth, I am forced to do what Elijah Muhammad did years ago: dismiss the intellectuals in favor of the grass roots. I said some years ago, give me one hundred black murderers and we'll TCB, too hell with academic Negroes when it is the common sense brothers and sisters from the hood who will make the motion of history a reality. The intellectual Negroes are confounded at every turn, twisting and turning over Obama, impotent to radicalize Black Studies, paralyzed to advance black liberation beyond conference after conference after conference. When will we, in the words of Bob Marley, "Wake up, stand up, don't give up the fight"?
> --Marvin X
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