I read with interest a post made by Sam Smith of the web log, Rogues and scholars, concerning the dismissal of Ward Churchill, a professor there. In his post he made the following statement:

“In a place like Boulder, a town that’s just overrun by what we might call “salon liberals,” we liked to tell ourselves that we were largely past racial divides in structuring our personal lives and our communities. While that’s admirable, it’s also not terribly realistic, is it? When push comes to shove, it’s easier to be magnanimous and open-minded on these issues when you’re surrounded by people who look like you and come from places where they mostly share your cultural experiences and assumptions and practices. In truth, though, regardless of how open the minds are all around you, it’s going to be hard living and working in a place where you’re a novelty.”

 As a black student at an HBCU, (historically Black College or University) for the last five years, I have developed a perspective concerning the race relations between whites and blacks. However, I would like to be as honest as my white brother Sam with regards to the actual mindset of African Americans in their own territory so to speak, and how I as a black individual ended up feeling exactly like the novelty Sam talks about in his article above.

‘Black males in Focus’ was the title of a recent article in the university newspaper:

“For every 240 Blacks and Hispanics that go to prison, one-one-graduates from college,”

This was the statement made by one of the senior administrators at the university. These are striking words. They used to illicit feelings of outrage and concern, emotions that one might think the proper catalyst to channel a focused effort into solving the problem.

No more.

For one it is incorrect. The ration is probably closer to 1:1. Because there are so few men in black society, it has become by and large a matriarchal one. And the overriding tendency of such a degenerate society is to keep men eliminated, resulting in a chronic lack of fatherhood and manhood.

To highlight this attribute, I will use myself as an object example.

During my first fall semester at my HBCU in 2002 I traveled to Utah to meet Jerry Montgomery, a resident of Salt Lake City who would become an advisor, mentor and friend. He invited me to visit him and his family after seeing some of the comments I was making on a yahoo physics forum where we had initially met. Excited at the prospect of having a professor who would sign off on my research (once it passed his inspection) in the field I loved, gravity, I jumped at the opportunity, even though some would regard Utah as a pretty ‘white state.

Through hard work under Jerry’s guidance, I submitted research to a conference that ended up on a harvard link and the American Physics Society sites, attracting attention from many professors off campus and internationally. Distinguishing myself as a promising student with potential however only caused me to be met with the same kind of castration that any slave on a plantation would at my HBCU. I received a vicious attack from my own advisor, himself a foregin national, and a black dean, who told me that he thought the sacrifices of our African anscestors is ‘just a bunch of philosophy’.

When I mentioned my frustrations to a reporter with the university paper a year ago, with the intention of submitting an article, he first told me that ‘we don’t cover science articles’. Later though, after meeting with the university about rights to the research, the reporter sought me out, casually mentioning that I was ‘on the budget’ as if he had allocated some funds that specifically secured my interview’s place as an article in the paper. I met the reporter for the interview, not knowing that it was nothing more than my ‘public castration’ that was going to take place.

When the article appeared, there were key things that were mentioned to humiliate and demoralize me; however one thing was missing.

No one mentioned the Hhrvard link or the American Physics Society site that showcased my research.

I mentioned the term ‘public castration’ as a reference to a story told to me by a grad student about how slave masters established their authority over their slaves when they arrived on the plantation. He told me that they would take the males and castrate them in the presence of the female slaves. This was done for two reasons. One was to demoralize him and break his spirit, physically and emotionally ‘shanking’ his position as father and leader in front of his peers. The second was to show that it was the slave master alone who could procreate, and was the lead male among all males on the plantation, securing the focus of authority on himself.

And there I stood, castrated, my virility cut off. I looked like some mindless fool who just didn’t know his place, straying from the confines of the rest of the flock, the university standing as the sole authority in front of the rest of the students.

Though some students and staff came to me in a sympathetic gesture, the reaction I received was probably an indication of the intellectual bankruptcy and slave mentality prevelant here. Unlike the incident surrounding the Duke Lacrosse case, no one rushed to my aid. But this is not unusual when you consider the fact that thirty graduate students lost funding, and instead of demanding an investigation or protesting, simply sat silent and did nothing. It is not unusual when you hear of blacks complaining about the Jena 6, and yet say nothing about the injustices on their own campus, instead saying, ‘well you can’t bite the hand that feeds you’.

When I showed Sam’s article to a friend, he said that ‘such open and honest sincerity was refreshing’ coming from someone white I suppose. However I feel compelled to give a fair and balanced perspective to the article because too many blacks use whites as an excuse to either ask for a handout or do nothing, or play the role of victim.

Naturally I was angry and bitter at the apathy, indifference, and outright hostility. But one must know what the disease is before one prepares a prescription. Perhaps Boulder may be overwhelmingly white and that is the reason no one applies. Also the discrimination I experienced might be treated as an isolated case. But I am surrounded by nearly 8,900 blacks.

During my first semester here, I went to Utah where I met the professor who collaborated with me on the paper. I didn’t shirk because the state was all white. Aside from the lack of manhood and fatherhood prevalent in black society, another obvious symptom of such apathy is a willingness to engage of things we share in common.

It is sad that not only is potential not helped, but ‘castrated’ at the very place black talent would be expected to grow. I was embarrassed by my white friends who came to me with questions like, ‘great to see your research connected with Harvard; I couldn’t find it on your university site. Why?’ or ‘Harvard?! That’s great! That must be worth something like a free semester’s worth of tuition and room and board or something right?’

Unfortunately no.

The truth is that the disparity in the black community, after years of racism and discrimination is not a black or white problem, but a human problem. And unfortunately, it appears to have reached a terminal level, compounded by the self perpetuating cycle of human nature itself.