Word: cruse
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Saturday's Crimson (March 1, 1986) carried a rather curious editorial, "Crisis After Cruse," by one David J. Barron. I found it curious for a few reasons which I will go into in a moment and offensive as well...
...take one point: I wonder whether it is strictly in the sense of fair play to fault both Professors [Cornel] West and [Harold] Cruse for not responding to a charge of anti-Semitism, or pro-Farrakhan-ism, as it were. Is this not a straw man argument, used for the purpose of arousing antagonistic sentiment toward Cruse, West, and "Black intellectuals" (and therefore the Du Bois Graduate Colloquium, which Mr. Barron takes as an example of the latter)? As the risk of sounding naive, which I don't think I am overly, the issue of the Nation of Islam...
...note on matters of record: Surely Mr. Barron should be expected, if he is to lambast Professor West, to get his name correct: Professor Cornel West is an assistant professor at the Yale Divinity School, not Conrad West. And I would add that Professor Cruse's remarks at the fall meeting/lecture of the Seymour Society, an undergraduate Christian organization, may have little in acutality to do with his remarks at the Du Bois Graduate Colloquium (which were a "reminiscence" of Professor Du Bois, with comments linking Professor Du Bois's career with that of young scholars today...
...both West and Cruse refuse to voice their intellectual disagreements with Farrakhan. Sure Farrakhan is anti-Semitic and anti-intellectual, and his popularity is symbolic of the degree to which the Black underclass has been de-socialized. But to say as much would be to side with Jewish critics. How much easier then to refer to Farrakhan simply as a symbol of "defiance," an intentionally hollow word...
...Black intellectuals would stop worrying about what Jews think, which is only what Cruse called for two decades ago, then they could become catalysts for change. As it stands, Black intellectuals--if the colloquium can be taken as an example--discredit themselves by exhalting critical scrutiny while they sweep an intellectually turbulent problem out of view...