SETH FORMAN
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But Gates is ultimately unwilling to subject black literature to the
scrutiny of "the most sophisticated critical theories and methods avail–
able," writing on another occasion that "I once thought it our most
important gesture to
master
the [Western] canon of criticism, to
imitate
and
apply
it, but I now believe that we must turn to the black tradition itself to
develop theories of criticism indigenous to our literatures." Sounding very
much like Irving Howe, Gates rounds on Ralph Ellison for denying the
distinctive needs of black literature, concluding "that until we free ourselves
of the notion that we are 'just Americans,' as Ellison might put it...we shall
remain indentured servants to white masters."
Interestingly, it is in Gates's criticism that it is possible to observe the
roots of this literary circumscription: specifically, the little noticed but
nevertheless intimate connection between the debates over affirmative
action and canon formation. Among other things, the supporter of racial
preferences believes that there should be protection for individuals whose
life experiences are dictated to an unacceptable degree by external preju–
dice. The li terary equivalent of affirmative action, as articulated originally
by Irving Howe and now promoted, as we have seen, by Gates, Baker, and
hooks, views the art of racial minorities and women as largely representa–
tive of externally constructed categories of experience. In both instances,
the self is primarily a creation of outside forces. But if de-essentializing
black literature requires voluntary affiliations rather than involuntary ones,
then the officially sanctioned system of demographic classification created
by racial preferences militates against this quite worthy literary project.
And prominent black intellectuals are in no way immune from this
system of racial classification. In the pursuit of multiculturalism, presti–
gious universities seek out black scholars and indulge them with their own
departm.ental sanctuaries, replete with a constituency of students and
access to a multitude of funding sources and publishing opportunities. In
1996, The N ew York Tim.es
reported that Gates himself secured an addition–
al $11 million to run the W E. B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American
Studies, which is housed in a separate $25 million building at Harvard
University. The incisive black critic Gerald Early gave voice to the paradox
that arises when critics like Gates and Baker set out to create for them–
selves a sophisticated and mature style of criticism, but at the same time
are regaled with the most conspicuous accoutrements of racial preferences.
"Black scholars have obtained," Early writes, "a thoroughly bourgeois
patronage of their authority as 'experts' in... race.. . .As they argue against
'essentialism,' their existence at the university.. .is built on the essentialist
nature of their own representation."
Wherever one may fall in the debate over affirmative action as social
policy, it is impossible not to see its manifestation in contemporary black
