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ancestors, and they defined their ancestors in racial ways, through the racial
prism. I think the university, perhaps in a paternalistic way, perhaps in an
ahistorical and inaccurate way, followed that impulse because it defined
everything in terms of race so that there could not be a Shakespeare as art.
There could not be ancestors who belonged to everyone because they had
truth to bring to the university or some sort of meaning. As a consequence
you had so-called black studies pushing up against "white studies," what–
ever that was, and black studies was defined as black English, black
psychology, black history, black, black, black. So my question is: how do
you get the university to correct the lies, to correct history? Thomas
Jefferson, for example, may be seen in his contemporary times because we
then had people like Quakers who did not believe in slavery, who did not
believe in racial inferiority. How do you now correct the lies and at the
same time keep the university from engaging or falling apart in terms of
its instinct for paternalism, and how do you define white culture and black
culture, or is there such a thing?
Jerry
Martin: That's a very complex set of remarks and very insightful
about some of the problems on campus. I'll start with a story. Visiting a col–
lege campus, I was told by an enthusiastic curriculum coordinator, "We're
having the Hispanic students read Hispanic literature, the black students are
reading Richard Wright." He thought this was wonderful and I asked,
"What are the white students reading?" He paused and looked at me. And
I said, "You have white students. Don't you?" "Well, yeah." "Well, what are
they supposed to read?" He scratched his head, never having thought of
that. "Well, I guess Nathaniel Hawthorne." I suggested it might be valuable
for the white
kids
to read Richard Wright as well as Hawthorne, and for
the black
kids
to read Hawthorne as well as Richard Wright. This goes to
your point. These cultural resources are the heritage of all of us. Many stu–
dents arrive on campus in the fall of their freshman year completely open
to the riches of all the cultures of the world and then are regimented by the
people on campus who are devoted to the ethnic identity agenda, and by
the end of four years they're alienated from the larger culture.
Another time, I was on a panel with the vice president of a large state
uni–
versity who was talking much in the same line.
It
was on the West Coast and
they had many Asian students so they were putting more Asian materials in
the curriculum. I pointed out that I'd noticed the demographic surveys and
that, somewhat to my surprise, most Asian-Americans are Christians. Hence,
they have more in common with the Hebrew Bible and St. Augustine than
they have with Buddhist writings or Confucius. Well, the vice-president was
just steamed, and said that Asian students' Christian beliefS were superficial. She
evidendy believed the deeply racist hypothesis that blood prevails over all.
