AFTER four years at this institution, I've all but stopped reading The Cavalier Daily Opinion pages. The disproportionate number of negative perspectives pertaining to African Americans on these pages has been disheartening, to say the least. However, I happened to pick up the paper on Wednesday and read Eric Wang's column about "Diversifying the Daily," based in large part upon John McWhorter's conservative analysis of race in America.
I understand the destructive nature of fearing and loathing all things over which the white race is deemed to have ownership; in fact, I wrote my thesis on how this inhibits African Americans from true empowerment and success in academic fields. However, to suggest that African Americans at U.Va. do not join The Cavalier Daily because it's published in the majority language is asinine.While some portion of the black population in the United States may be affected by this menticide, to suggest that African Americans at the University of Virginia, some of the most accomplished and intelligent students in America, are inhibited by an inability or refusal to write in standard English is ridiculous. African Americans at U.Va. have the highest retention and graduation rates of any public institution in the country, and I'm confident these students have written in standard, mainstream English their entire college career.
As Bell Hooks points out in "Rock My Soul," "John McWhorter, like so many self-proclaimed black conservatives who see themselves as exposing the stupidity of other black people, never seems to veer in his analysis very far from the negative stereotypes white people have already described, written, and proclaimed for generations." Before reading these contemporary theories on black issues and forming an opinion based on this limited perspective, it's vitally important to understand black history. Books like "The Mis-Education of the Negro," "Souls of Black Folk" and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" provide historical context for the problems we face today. You'll never understand black issues until you understand our history. Instead, many students, as countless others have done throughout history, tell us to "put aside the bitter recriminations over a history we can't change." I would counter with the words of Malcolm X, who said, "Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research." The root causes and viable solutions to the contemporary issues we face today rise from the study of our history.
When individuals assert that black subculture glorifies poor education and advocates nonstandard language completely foreign to the civil rights generation, it's clear that there has been a misunderstanding of our history. While whites have historically felt that education would "spoil a nigger," and laws made it a crime for enslaved men and women to learn or teach others to read and write, the intensity with which the slaves sought education superseded the threat of beating, amputation or death. Booker T. Washington expressed the general sentiment among the slaves when he wrote, "There was never a time in my youth, no matter how dark and discouraging the days might be, when one resolve did not continually remain with me, and that was a determination to secure an education at any cost" ("Up From Slavery"). This is hardly the sentiment of a people that have glorified poor education.
The exploration of this history contributes toward the development of a contemporary theory of African-American school achievement and makes palpable the feeling, meaning and significance African Americans have attached to schooling and learning. Furthermore, the black English so often referred to by racial critics is a dialect rising from the pidgin and creole of African languages merging with English that has been shown, contrary to deficiency interpretations, to be a distinct, systematic, role-based language, capable of accommodating the full range of intellectual and cognitive tasks. While blacks should certainly learn to speak and write standard English, this dialect is part of black American history, and it should be understood in the context of history (the civil rights movement included).
It's negative and ill-informed opinions and sentiments within organizations like The Cavalier Daily that drive African Americans to avoid full integration and participation. Granted, the argument can be made that African Americans should come into The Cavalier Daily and do something about it, but to expect the majority of black students to voluntarily enter into this hostile environment is unreasonable and un-empathetic. For those black students who have chosen to enter institutions such as the Cav Daily to provide alternative perspectives, we should whole-heartedly encourage and salute them for their efforts. But to blame the lack of diversity at the Cav Daily on a fear and loathing of the mainstream and standard English from black students is unreasonable and ignorant. As Dr. King once hoped, may we, together, "help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood."
Justin Steele is a fourth-year Engineering student.
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