In a New Light
By Christa Dierksheide
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer
Nearly five months after the fact, Sept. 11 remains a buzzword that pervades conversation and monopolizes headlines. But tomorrow night, a roundtable discussion "On the Responsibility of Black Intellectuals in a post-Sept. 11 World" will attempt to examine this hinge-point in American history in a new light.
Beginning at 7 p.m. in Minor Hall auditorium, the forum will allow several professors on Grounds to submit their perspectives on how the roles of black intellectuals have shifted within society.
Participants will include George Mentore of the anthropology department, Matthew Holden Jr. of the government and foreign affairs department, Mildred Robinson of the Law School as well as Martin N. Davidson and Erika Hayes James, both of Darden. Corey D.B. Walker, scholar-in-residence at the Carter G. Woodson Center for African American Studies, will moderate the discussion.
Mentore, who volunteered to serve as a panelist, said that minority faculty at the University have several things to say about the impact of Sept. 11 that have not yet been voiced.
"We can't narrow the world down where we're the only ones who are different," Mentore said.
Rather than being complacent about the role of black intellectuals in society, a role highlighted especially by such recent events as Cornel West's conflict with Harvard President Laurence Summers, Mentore said that it is "important to consider what it is like to confront the violence of the attacks from a different position."
"It's been far too complacent for far too long," he said.
On an individual level, Mentore said the Sept. 11 attacks affected both his role as a black intellectual and as a teacher at the University.
"All of a sudden, my students were looking to me for answers and to know something that they did not," he said. "For the first time in my 15 years here, I felt like a teacher."
In addition, Mentore feels that the impact on how the world perceives race in a post-Sept. 11 world has been a largely untapped issue, and one that needs to be explored.
"It concerned me that something like gender, that something like race really does count [in the aftermath of the attacks]. And that really taught me something," Mentore said.
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