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appraisal: Baldwin, he wrote in
Lovesong,
"is not an anti-Semite, but his re–
marks
in
class were anti-Semitic, and he does not realize it."
Like the trail of a comet, the tail of the controversy exceeded its body
in significance. The affair didn't so much hinge on what Baldwin said, meant,
or provoked in 1984 but on how people behaved in 1988. Lester's view
was simple: he felt he had "caught hell" for criticizing Jesse Jackson in 1984
and now again for depicting Baldwin "in his frail humanness rather than as an
icon before whom candles are to be lighted." Afro-American Department
members countered by pointing to the gravity of Lester's offense in their
eyes. He was in the audience on February 28, 1984; why didn't he speak
up then? "Julius is saying that we criticized
him
for disagreeing with us about
Baldwin," Professor John Bracey told a reporter. "We're saying that he
lied
about Baldwin." A statement signed by fifteen department members asserted
that Baldwin's talk had "sparked a great deal oflively, rational, and civil in–
terchange" and not, as Lester wrote in
Lovesong,
"hurt and anger" among the
Jewish students. Lester, said Professor Ernest Allen, "throws gasoline on in–
flammatory situations and is surprised when they blow up."
U-Mass Chancellor Joseph Duffey, a cautious man, initiated an inquiry
to see whether a full-scale investigation was warranted. It was not clear that
Lester's academic freedom was technically violated, and Duffey was right to
reserve judgement. But he did object strongly to the idea of a departmental
meeting convened to examine a professor's views. Duffey called the Febru–
ary meeting an "inquisition." When a department member protested the use
ofthis word, the chancellor shot back: "Frankly, I am surprised that you do
not see the dangerous, even ominous, threat that such an action by an aca–
demic department can pose to the spirit and reality of a university commu–
nity in terms of freedom of thought and expression."
This isn't the first time Lester has tested the limits of toleration by ex–
ercising his freedom of thought. What is most remarkable about his conver–
sion to Judaism is that the noisiest brouhaha of his career - at least until the
current flap - centered on charges that Lester promoted the black anti–
Semitism that he now so volubly deplores. It happened during the winter of
1968-69, in the aftermath of a teacher's strike that seemed to pit blacks
against Jews in New York City. Just when relations between the two
minorities had reached boiling point, Lester broadcast a teenage black girl's
anti-Semitic poem on his radio program - and played a tape of it for the next
two weeks. The poem began: "Hey,Jew boy, with that yarmulke on your
head/ You pale-faced Jew boy - I wish you were dead." Looking back,
Lester now says - astonishingly - that at the time he thought the poem
"would facilitate contact between Jews and blacks." But he knew he had
given offense and somehow started identifying himself with the people he
offended.
By 1979 Lester had vaulted to the other side of the firing line. When
