Word: afro
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...word "ethnic" has come to connote the experience of minorities and immigrants in this country.Thus, course in several existing departments--East Asian Studies, Sanskrit and Indian Studies, etc.--do not qualify as "ethnic." In fact, the only departments that can call itself truly ethnic in this sense is Afro-American Studies. "Afro-Am," as it has come to be known, deals primarily with the history, sociology, and literature of Blacks in the United States...
...Course of Instruction book, about thirty course specifically in Afro-American studies are listed. They are followed by as many, if not more, courses in other departments that deal peripherally but not exclusively with Afro-American issues. These courses could easily be called E.S. under the above rubric. In fact, the whole Department of Afro-American Studies could be known as E.S. with a definite focus on Afro-Americans...
...qualify my assessment of Afro-Am's "preeminence" in terms of its link to Harvard and the Harvard "name." My doing so is not intended to diminish either the significance of West's and Higginbotham's appointments or the impressive pace at which the Afro-Am department has been rebuilding itself from its near collapse in 1990-1991. Having been an Afro-Am concentrator since 1991--the time of the department's rebirth--I have proudly witnessed Afro-Am's noteworthy accomplishments, especially in the growth of its faculty and course offerings...
While I am confident that the members of the Afro-Am departments are well aware of the tasks facing them, I am not convinced that such a commitment exists university-wide. In recent discourses on faculty diversity and multiculturalism, there has been a tendency by some critics to exploit the successes of the Afro-Am department in order to dismiss all further claims for hiring "minority" faculty or expanding ethnic studies...
...this context that I "question what difference one professor can make." At this point, in my conversation with Ms. Kao, I was no longer discussing the specifics of the Afro-Am department, but instead some prevailing sentiments among the College and University community which I found disturbing. While Ms. Arden-Smith's and Ms. Kao's use of my statement--highlighted by their use of my picture--would seem to suggest that I questioned the abilities of Cornel West, I expressed nothing but praise for West's work, approach and the contributions he will bring to Harvard's Afro...