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EDITORIALS
By Aaron Chilton
Editorial Columnist
On my very first day of
New Student Orientation, my
group leader told us that he
had written a paper on the
absence of Black professors,
full- or part-time, in the
Morehouse philosophy
department. He alleged that
the department's white
professors were racist.
Today, there still are no
African American professors
in the department and I have,
on more than one occasion,
heard students refer to one or
more of its professors as racist.
Let's consider the
reasoning behind these claims.
It is not difficult for me to
understand the complaints of
students. What sense does it
make for any department at an
HBCU to have exclusively
white professors?
Black philosophers are in
high demand because there
just aren't that many. For
instance, in our department,
there are less than twenty
majors and most of us are
planning to attend law school
rather than pursue advanced
degrees in philosophy.
Morehouse philosophy
professor Dr. Del Kiernan-
Lewis said that the
department has been actively
seeking Black professors for
several years. However, they
have encountered two major
obstacles.
First is the lack of Black
Ph.D.'s in the field, most of
whom tend to be enticed by
larger schools who pay more,
bring more prestige, and
provide more promising
prospects for their works
being published.
Second, the Morehouse
philosophy department lacks
Racism in the philosophy
department ?
the financial support of the
school to hire a new full
time professor of any race,
especially considering the
already small class sizes that
average between 5-8
students.
Still, some students
point to the fact that both
Spelman and CAU have
been able to secure Black
professors in their
departments. Others complain
about comments made and
behavior exhibited by
professors that they believe to
be racist.
One student claims that a
professor stated there is no
such thing as African
philosophy. Taken out of
context with little
understanding of the
academic discipline itself, this
may seem racist.
However, authentic
evaluation of this statement
will reveal that this professor
was not claiming that African
peoples are incapable of
critical reflection and
intellectual inquiry; that
would be absurd. What he
meant is that, historically,
there has not been an
established systematic
methodology for critically
evaluating the production
and dissemination of
knowledge for its own sake
as practiced in the Western
academy.
This is not a derogatory
claim about Africans lacking
in intellectual capacity, but a
descriptive statement about
the way in which inquiry has,
or has not, taken place.
Another consideration is
that the history of philosophy
as studied in western
academia has a strong
tradition of elitism, sexism
and racism. Most
philosophers who studied
the discipline prior to the
twentieth century are avid
bigots. I suspect that students
find it disturbing when white
professors give serious
consideration to thinkers
who are obviously racist.
Since the study of philosophy
consists of studying
philosophers, the discipline
tends to take on racist
overtures due to the elitism
that the activity exudes.
However, we must
distinguish between the
personal views of the
professors and the ideas they
study and teach. In
philosophy it is vital that we
make attempts to be detached
when assessing the ideology
of a thinker, even when it is
apparently racist, sexist or
elitist.
I don't pretend to be able
to account for every student's
beliefs about my department,
its chair, and the professors,
but I remain firmly convinced
that none of them are even
remotely racist.
One student claims that a professor stated there is
no such thing as African philosophy. Taken out of
context with little understanding of the academic
discipline itself, this may seem racist.
Let student assistants
handle computer labtraffic
To the Editor:
Have we come so far and
yet made so little progress?
Morehouse College, the beacon
of the AUC, treats its students
like prisoners and dogs!
I say this when a police
officer can arbitrarily enter the
Sale Hall computer lab and, like
a Gestapo, demands the IDs of
the students in the lab! In the
same breath, he barks the
order to leave if students don't
have their college ID with
them!
I have been a student here
for three years and I have been
working as a lab assistant for
about the same period of time.
The running of the lab is
complex and never is it a
situation of black and white.
The fact is no other AUC
institution has a computer lab
with the levels of performance
the Sale Hall lab possesses.
When Morehouse students
complain that the lab is used
more often by other schools, it
is a desperate attempt to give
themselves excuses for
waiting until the last minute
to hand in papers.
The use of the lab by other
AUC students has never been
a major determinant in
computer availability in the
lab. Throwing them out of the
lab should not be welcomed
either. The result of this
exercise is the unnecessary
intimidation of Morehouse
students.
If, in fact, the use of the lab
should be limited, let it be
limited to the times there is
heavy traffic in the lab —
midterms and finals. As a
student, it is very hard to tell
other students to leave the lab
when you know they have to
do equally important papers,
no matter what school they are
from.
Allow the lab assistants
the discretion to handle these
situations as they arise. Should
Morehouse students need to
use the lab, then it should be
up to those coordinating
assistance in the lab to handle
it so that the least number of
individuals are adversely
affected.
The last issue of The
Maroon Tiger commented on
the problems faced in the lab.
Running the lab with forty
computers, that may or may
not be at optimum
performance levels, and only
two lab assistants (on average)
is ridiculous! The network is
always in a mess; a computer
that prints today may not
necessarily print tomorrow.
Yet with the help of the
assistants, the lab is more or
less a successful venture. If
only we had enough assistants
to assist. If only we didn't have
to be psychologically insulted
by being thrown out of our lab
if we came to the lab with our
disk and without our I.D. If
only we, as students, were
trusted to handle our lab to our
best interest.
If only we could get rid of
this slave mentality.
Keilonne O'Brien ’00
If, in fact, the use of the lab should be
limited, let it be limited to the times
there is heavy traffic in the lab —
midterms and finals.
