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April, 1979 Vol. XXXII No. V Atlanta, Georgia Ishmael Reed — writer, teacher, publisher. White Males Dominate American Society Spelman’s Purpose Unclear by Pamela Denise Moore “All of American culture is merely controlled or dominated by white males who promote or inflate the egos of other white males,” said Ishmael Reed, a partner in the two-leading Afro- American printing companies— Y’Bird and Reed and Cannon. Reed, writer-in-residence at Spelman during this semester, sees himself as a writer first, teacher second, and as a publisher, third. Publishing is “just a service for me,” he said. “I mean this is a sen- vice to the community. I am pub lishing books that can never be published anywhere else—that need to be published—to break up this white male vanity show.” According to Reed, the small group of people who control the wealth in America dwell in a fan tasy world “where they say King Tut is white. They have to rear range history, lie about history to flatter themselves.” Because of this, he publishes those points-of-view that are called “subversive.” Reed said, “They feel black males are intellectually threatening to them...So we pub lish people like William Denby who are uppity. We publish uppity niggers—Immamu Baraka- uppity, upcompromising.” Reed believes that the number one political problem in this coun try is distribution. “How can peo ple make intelligent decisions when they don’t have all the information, when it’s all wrapped up in one monopoly—the white male monopoly.” It is the purpose of his compan ies, he said, “to break up this monopoly of decision-making, of who controls the images and the political and cultural power” in this country by building black institutions. “There is power in low-budget operations,” said Reed. Presently, Reed is a partner of two black printing companies both of which are the leading Afro- American companies in the United States. Y’Bird, a joint venture of Reed and Al Young, was founded in 1971. Reed and Cannon, a ven ture of Reed and Steve Cannon was begun in 1973. In addition to publishing needed information concerning black Americans, Reed also publishes Third World literature. Reed has been writing all of his life. In elementary school he wrote essays and once wrote a fictional account of Abraham Lincoln’s death. He did not fully realize his ambition to be a writer, however, until he wrote a school play in the seventh grade. Reed said that he encountered a lot of cultural racism in high school. “I didn’t play basketball, and I didn’t play football. I’d be reading books, so I knew all the words they’d say I was uppity, “he said. By Pamela Denise Moore According to the results of the Q-sort test, most members of the Spelman family do not view the strengthening of black identities among its students, the enhance ment of the image of black women, the preparation of black women for their roles in society, or any development of a black conscious ness as the most important purpose of the college. The Q-sort test was adminis tered last year to eight groups of people: 146 freshmen, 107 sopho mores, 91 juniors, 44 seniors, 79 members of the faculty and admin istration, 3 trustees, and 15 alumnae. The results of the Q-Sort test were used as a basis for the formu lation of the schools’ purpose state ment, which will be included in the final draft of the self-study docu ment. This document is required as a part of Spelman’s current reac creditation process. All accredited schools^ are evaluated every 10 years by the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges. For the Q-Sort process, respondents were given 84 cards, each having a written statement of purpose of the school. Respond ents were asked to classify the cards into 11 piles as the most important and the first pile as the least important. With the excep tions of the first and last piles, the others had more than one slot in By Avy D. Long Grades are more symbolic than substantive for this generation, said Dr. Blanche Curry, visiting professor of philosophy at Spelman. “Many students are excessively preoccupied with receiving the A’s and B’s they need to get into college or graduate school, or to obtain a job, but they are unconcerned about the true merit of the grade,” she said. Dr. Curry is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in the department of philosophy and religion. Her comments concern ing the present quality of education first appeared in an article she wrote for the Wilmington Star which to place a card. The card dealt with social, physi cal, cultural, academic, and other aspects of life on campus. Those cards that ranked highest in impor tance were those relating to intel lectual and scholarly execellence and career preparation. Out of those cards that related specifically to black females, card 13, which read, “increase the number of eligible black women in professional job market,” and card 11, which read, “strengthen those qualities which enable women to be self-supporting and independ ent,” ranked highest with total score of eight. Card 19, which read, “provide an alternative quality educational choice for black women which strengthens black identity and con fidence” received a total score of only six. Strangely, however, the trustees were the single group of the 8 groups to give this card a rank of 11. Other cards which read, “pre pare black women for the real world,” “prepare black women for their roles in society,” “help black women find their identities,” and “enhance the image of black wom anhood” received rankings of seven, six, five, and five, respectively. Furthermore, those cards that related to blacks in general received even lower scores, “Engender race pride among News in October of last year. As a result of this attitude toward education, many students are terminating this phase of their education without mastering it sucessfully. Another consequence can be seen in the job screening process. Now employers conduct more thorough interviews because they realize that transcripts are not indicative of a student’s true abil ity. The employer may want to dis cuss the student’s major in detail or want to see evidence other than a transcript as proof of ability. There are many causes for this lack of quality education. The emphasis placed on grades in rela tionship to further schooling and economic security is probably the blacks and help students command esteem from all races,” was the highest ranked in this group with a low score of 5. “Make students aware of their black African herit age” received an even lower rating of 4. All other cards were concen trated in the 5 to 1 range, with “encouraging black students to think from a black perspective” ranking at 3. Dr. Jane Aldridge, co-chairper- person of the self-study committee, however, did not seem too alarmed over the results of the Q-Sort Test. She explained the findings in this manner. “I think that this is a college for black women. In other words, when you have a certain kind of identity you tend to think about other kinds of goals. Students are very much interested in receiving a quality education with excellent preparation in their majors so that they can compete with graduates of all other colleges.” In the results of the Q-Sort test, “provide the student with a tho rough knowledge of their particu lar fields was ranked highest with the overall score of 11. Those cards that were ranked in the second most important pile were “strive for academic excellence” and “pro vide academic climate for full development of scholarly poten tial.” All of the cards in the third most important pile related to aca demic excellence and career or graduate preparation. primary reason. Dr. Curry consid ers the conferring of unearned grades and the offering of futile courses as the second cause. While teachers are sometimes responsible for this cause, too often students are responsible for it. Dr. Curry finds that often students pressure teachers into offering pointless courses and giving inflated grades. As an example of a futile course, she cited one offered at Howard University entitled “How to Please Your Supervisor." The title itself is indicative of the futility of the course in that it places the empha sis on the employee’s relationship with her supervisor rather than her ability to do the job. This course is continued on page 4 Grades Have Lost Relevance