Word: gershman
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Amid the moral uproar surrounding the Klitgaard report, the Crimson has provided us with an article that surely dwarfs Klitgaard in arrogance, specious argument, and even racism--Selwyn Cudjoe's "Ideological Trick-Bag." This quasi-Marxist analysis pales in comparison with the sober and informed exchange between Carl Gershman and Dr. Kenneth Clark it sets out to condemn...
...begin with, we must infer that The Crimson, having published Mr. Cudjoe's piece, is no mere bourgeois "ideological apparatus" seeking "to make the natives fight among themselves," unlike the New York Times and the rest of "The Press." Mr. Cudjoe claims that Gershman and Klitgaard simply perpetrate "another ideological onslaught ... against Black America, the activities of the Ku Klux Klan being the more vulgar manifestation of the same phenomenon." He further accuses them of "pseudo-intellectualism and militant racist assumptions." But where is the Klan-like racism in the Klitgaard report? In pointing out test score discrepancies? If there...
...Gershman merits this abuse still less than Klitgaard. His basic claim is that the problem of the permanent Black underclass, a problem of great importance to the "future of America as a viable urban civilization," will not be solved simply by affirmative action programs and similar measures because racism is no longer the primary obstacle. One may disagree with his argument, as does Dr. Clark, but it is an outrageous distortion to impute to Gershman the view that the Black bourgeoisie is the "CAUSE OF" and bears the "RESPONSIBILITY FOR" the plight of the Black underclass...
...make no mistake about it, Mr. Gershman has gone to great lengths to depict the Black bourgeoisie as a parasitic and exploitative class and to argue that their racial approach to the analysis of the Black condition "has benefitted those least in need and has perpetuated the dependency of the underclass." Moreover, we are now to believe that to struggle against racism and class exploitation is to use the Black underclass as a political base from which to "threaten--and extract concessions from the society." Such analysis leads one to assume, that if we did not struggle for better jobs...
...self-accountability of the Black intellectual remains the predominant concern. We must structure our discourses and practices in such a manner that we assist in the liberation of our group. But to accept the burden of white America's failure is something we must never do. Mr. Gershman and Mr. Robert Klitgaard (as spokesmen for the dominant white class) will always try to put us into an ideological trick-bag. It is important that we never fall prey to such pseudo-intellectualism and militant racist assumptions...