EDUCATION BEYOND POLITICS
365
that hate produced. 1 cannot support it, but 1 view it, nonetheless, as a
cry
of pain. The Afrocentrists are paranoid, if understandably so; they are
extreme nationalists, fascistic ethno- chauvinists. Afrocentrists view the
post-modern doctrines of the academy as Euro-Arnerican decadence. The
multiculturalists view the Afrocentrists, with their advocacy of traditional
gender roles and family values, as homophobic and sexist. [Note: Since
these remarks were delivered, Harvard University Black Studies Director
Henry Louis Gates, in
The New York Times
ofJune 3, 1992, has described
Afrocentrism as "classic escapism and romanticism."]
Fred
Siegel:
In
what's going on in the streets, literally in the streets of
Brooklyn where I live, the distinction fades. I think you're right
intellectually. But when I look at people marching down Church Av–
enue, or 1 watch what happened in Crown Heights, or 1 look at com–
munity meetings being disrupted, it is the Afrocentrist groups and other
groups, for the moment at least, who are making common cause. 1 agree
with you that much of the ideology can be described as Afro-fascist. But
on the day-to-day level, and on the level of public perception, the two
are tightly connected. At the upper levels of the university you're right,
they're separate. But in fights over the school curriculum in Brooklyn,
for instance, the N ew Alliance party and the black nationalist groups are
in complete accord.
Wilson Moses:
New Alliance is obviously a freaky group. They
continually state their commitment to gay causes, and yet they give their
support to Louis Farrakhan, a notorious gay basher. The leaders are op–
portunists, who jump on every available band wagon. This is really a
bizarre kind of coalition.
Fred
Siegel:
With a lot of money.
Wilson Moses:
Absolutely. They are really bizarre. I think when you
talk about New Alliance and about Lenora Fulani and her group, it
simply shows you how far removed all that is from what's going on in
the university.
In
the university, on the other hand, we do have people
who are involved in public policy issues and who are trying to affect
public policy in ways that are very much in conflict with what happens
in the streets.
Fred
Siegel:
And in the local school curriculum, in the fights over what
can be dealt with in the schools. These two groups have joined together.
Abigail 'Thernstrom: I
just want to return to the question of stan-
