Eddie Glaude Writes about the Willful Ignorance of a Black Studies Critic
Ignorance can be so loud and in your face. That much we know; it is a common feature of American public debate these days. Just turn on Fox News or listen to talk radio. But when it is willfulignorance — that is, a deliberate refusal to assess evidence that contradicts ready-at-hand assumptions — it is beyond annoying and irritating. It leaves me angry — especially when crude and harmful views are hiding behind the ignorance.
Recently, Naomi Schaefer Riley penned a screed about the state of Black Studies. In a rather mindless blog she dismissed the entire field, based on a cursory glance at the dissertation titles of four graduate students mentioned in a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. She described the general thrust of their work as “left-wing victimization claptrap,” concluded that the scholarship of Black Studies was stuck in 1963 (a rather arbitrary date) and that its primary mode of analysis, at least as evidenced in the work of these students, was to “blame the white man.” (Perhaps she just finished reading Patrick Buchanan.)
Obviously, titles aren’t the sole criteria to judge the quality of someone’s work. I suspect, given her commitment to “serious” reflection, that if Riley were to take a close look at some of the titles of the dissertations written, say, in the fields of English and American Studies, she would be quick to dismiss those disciplines as well.
Maybe not … because behind Riley’s mean-spirited engagement with the work of these aspiring young scholars lies a troublesome racial politics — and Black Studies stands as its proxy.
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one should always consider the source from which something comes ,there is no doubt that Naomi Schaefer Riley, is an obvious right wing academic bigot and social Racist who attempts to use her white supremacy view point to discount Black scholarship as many typical white supremacists do…so let her continue her journey all the the way to her home h**l! cave b***h!
Riley speaks from a perspective of a person who has never had to worry that her history or culture is overlooked in mainstream society. She doesn’t worry about the fact that a color of a person’s skin can marginalize them because it has never even touched her life. It’s no wonder that when faced with scholarly research about the ugly parts of our country’s history she shuns it and blindly protects the white privilege that she grew up basking in. She is a sad human being.
In reality, she has a hidden case of jungle fever unsatisfied! Just ask Sarah Palin…..