b22
MICHAEL THELWELL
a kind of domestic brain-drain of black professionals, is long overdue.
It
is to this point that Mr. Cruse's discussions of the tensions between
integrationist and nationalist sentiments, and the possibility of cultural
pluralism should logically have led.
Neither the black intellectual's "crisis" nor the lJroblems of the
community originate in the ideological shortcomings of individual
figures, as Cruse's method might suggest. They arise from the role of the
black colleges as conduits, steering black professionals into "the main–
stream." The present foment on black campuses is a reflection of the
growing resistance to this process on the part of both students and
faculty. Out of this unrest on the campus could come an entirely new
definition of the relationship between college and community, and a
philosophy of education aimed at producing a new generation of black
professionals responsive to the needs of the black community. This is an
absolute prerequisite of any social and cultural reyolution in the ghetto.
The responsibility of black intellectuals is to speed up this develop–
ment, help create new political and economic organizations, and new
cultural institutions. At the same time, they must undertake - in
every relevant academic discipline - the critical reevaluation of the
entire body of scholarship affecling race relations in the society. It
is the black intellectual's responsibility to rescue our black history
from the deprecations of a self-justifying white guilt, to forge a new
consciousness based on the truths of our history and culture, and
begin to envision the form of our new community.
Because of his failure to deal specifically with these goals, Mr. Cruse
lost an opportunity to make a major theoretical and practical contribu–
tion. For it can only be a matter of time before the society realizes that
it is more desirable, and in the long run cheaper, to allow the black
community the freedom and the resources to reconstruct itself in terms
of its own choice. The alternative is armed occupation, and that is no
al tcrnative.
Michael Thelwell
