THE RECENT passing of Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks reminds us that collective action is as indispensable to social change as is the courageous leadership of a few. The civil rights movement could never have succeeded without the organizing of African-Americans as a bloc.
Although racial affiliation can empower individuals, it can also subsume them. Group loyalty can shackle the individual initiative to blaze new paths, as members of a race feel obliged to sacrifice their own ambitions so as not to leave the rest of the group behind. These tensions were on display last Thursday evening asAfrican-American Affairs Dean M. Rick Turner addressed the "State of African-American Affairs."
Turner pointed out the important role his Office of African-American Affairs has played in helping black students attain the highest graduation rate of any top-tier public university. At the same time, Turner said to many black students, "I think you're holding yourself back." Although he never explicitly stated why, one might surmise that it is out of an allegiance to group identity, wherein lies the paradox of racial affiliation.
Throughout last Thursday's program, speakers reiterated the importance of racial identity. Dean Sylvia Terry emphasized "our heritage and culture." Turner admonished African-Americans for having "forgotten our ancestors and lost our way" in pursuing "the sentimental American dream of integration."
As valuable as culture and heritage are, they have been unfortunately segregated in our history. Although there has been notable cultural and racial diffusion in the arts, entertainment and sports, the legacy of our own social and legal apartheid has still kept us racially divided. As long as we hold on to this history, we are holding on to segregation. As Lyndon B. Johnson said of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, "[T]hose who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future."
Adherence to history lies at the root of the "pockets of isolation" and the "sizable number of African-American [students] who are not involved in anything" that Turner spoke about. Dion Lewis, Director of the Luther P. Jackson Cultural Center, said after Turner's speech, "Many students come with cultural, emotional, and social baggage."
Although racial organizations and support groups can help students cope, they also weigh students down by reinforcing that baggage. As Stanford University psychologist Claude Steele has found, African-American students perform better on standardized tests when they choose not to consciously identify with their racial group on the demographic questionnaires. In other words, when they are not concerned about "selling out their community" or "acting white" by succeeding academically, they will, not surprisingly, rise to their natural abilities.
In a long-running theme of his, Turner noted how "all of the blacks in the [intramural] recreation center carry a broom or a mop." He made similar remarks about the McIntyre School of Commerce and the Alumni Foundation. Whether this situation results from genuine discrimination is hard to say. But equally disturbing is the utter lack of minorities in many classes and activities at the University that cannot be blamed on any discrimination other than self-selection.
African Americans constitute more than 12 percent of the U.S. population, almost 20 percent in Virginia, and more than seven percent of the University student body, according to official statistics. Just asTurner would like to see these numbers reflected in administrative and faculty positions, one would expect a proportionate racial representation across the board. However, the lack of racial minorities at The Cavalier Daily -- an activity open to anyone -- has long been a bitter point of contention.
To take another example, there are hardly any members of racial minority groups -- perhaps one or two -- on the (quite large) staff of the Journal of Law & Politics at the Law School. On the other hand, Asian Americans, quite stereotypically, are overrepresented at the Journal of Law and Technology. Such disparities cannot be explained by anything other the predominance of self-imposed racial attitudes on the decision to participate or not to participate in a given activity. And Turner should be every bit as outraged about this situation as he is about staffing.
Social elites in our country impose overwhelming pressures on minorities to continue to march in lockstep with their racial groups in how they live, learn, work, vote and even how they view themselves and the world. At the same time, there are some encouraging signs that the iron grip of identity politics is beginning to crack.
The program for Black History Month put out byTurner's office includes a discussion on black conservatives and their "alternative approach to racial politics and identity." This past Monday, there was also a lecture by a Bush administration official. These are notable because African-Americans have traditionally regarded conservatives with hostility. Equally refreshing was to hear Turner rail against "white parents -- Democrats, the large majority of them," who removed Charlottesville's first black school superintendent.
These deviations from traditional black political orthodoxy represent stirrings of individual autonomy, independence from groupthink and an effort to break free from the paradox of racial affiliation.
Eric Wang's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at ewang@cavalierdaily.com.
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