The recent Daily op-ed regarding Black Solidarity Day and my keynote speech provides an important opportunity for fostering dialogue around race relations on campus and nationally. Of course we all remember the recent controversy surrounding Harvard Professor Skip Gates and the Cambridge police, an event that thrust President Obama into a larger ongoing national conversation that, unfortunately, always progresses in fits and starts around racial incidents both real and imagined.
My Black Solidarity Day speech drew from my historical work on the Black Power Movement as well as my forthcoming book, "Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama." Contrary to popular misunderstanding and misconceptions regarding Black Power as an angry and violent movement that dragged down struggles for civil rights, I argued that the movement should be understood as one that endeavored to transform American democracy at the local, national and international level. The thrust of my speech underscored both the singularly unique and universal nature of the black freedom struggle as well as the necessity to build cross-racial alliances. On this score, at one point I invited students who were not black to listen to the day's events.
It is a pointless exercise to try to write a point-by-point refutation of the many mischaracterizations presented in the op-ed. There were enough students, faculty and staff there to attest to the rally's positive spirit of self-determination, democracy and community empowerment.
This minor controversy offers a valuable and, yes, teachable moment in contemporary race relations both on and off campus. We live in an age when, too often, those willing to discuss America's troubling and continuous history of racism can provoke discomfort and anger. The idea that Black Solidarity Day is nothing more than a quaint relic of the 1960s reflects an ignorance of American history and politics that plagues institutions of higher education as well as the larger society. In this age of Obama we have a lot of work to do to fulfill the Civil Rights-Black Power era dreams of racial, social, political and economic justice for all. A good place to begin, at least on this campus, may be by talking and listening to one another in good faith.
--
Peniel Joseph is a professor of history at Tufts University.
