From:
Co-Publisher
Glen Ford
To:
Readers
Dear
Reader,
Harvard
Law professor Randall Kennedy, a specialist in telling white people
exactly what he thinks they want to hear, continues to ride high on
the Best Sell-Out lists, his bank account swelled by proceeds from "Nigger:
The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word." Kennedy's own career
appears to be based on playing the role of surrogate to white racists,
who fear to mouth the dreaded N-word themselves, but love reading about
it from the perspective of a Black man who hates African Americans even
more than they do.
Dr.
Martin Kilson, professor of political science and the first Black to
achieve tenure at Harvard, in 1968, brilliantly dissected Kennedy's
pathological profiteering in the June 27 issue of this 
publication.
Kilson's diagnosis - the dictionary defines the word to mean, "the
art or act of identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms"
- is that "Kennedy's core purpose in producing 'Nigger' was to
assist White Americans in feeling comfortable with using the epithet
'nigger.'"
Kilson
suggested that Kennedy was guilty of inciting white bucks to run amuck
in the Ivy League. We sent out a news release:
Dr.
Kilson blamed Kennedy for a series of Harvard campus postings of e-mail
messages containing the racial slur. The incidents provoked demonstrations
by hundreds of students, led by the Harvard Black Law Students Association,
in March and April. Kilson said the events "were set in motion…by
the intellectually bizarre idea propagated in this book….
Kennedy
"has no sense of responsibility for the vicious racial fires
he has cynically ignited," said Dr. Kilson, He described Kennedy's
book as "tantamount to tossing a match at a gasoline-soaked building."
The
Kilson release got lots of attention, including coverage among the only
media that Kennedy respects: the big white press. Kennedy clearly does
not consider himself answerable in any respect to other Black people,
but he does answer the phone when the Boston Globe calls. Staff writer
Stephanie Stoughton reported, July 8:
After
reading Kilson's critique, Kennedy called it "silly, inaccurate,
poorly researched, a sad commentary on Professor Kilson." Among
his issues with the latest criticism is Kilson's assumption that there
is a connection between Kennedy's book and the [Harvard 'nigger']
incidents. "Let's suppose there is a relationship," he said.
"So what? So I'm not supposed to write a book because someone
might put it to bad use?"
Poorly
researched? Kennedy is one of those "public intellectuals"
who act the fool in the full
light of day. Dr. Kilson read the book and a number of related articles
in the New York Times and the Boston Globe. He quotes the author's words.
Kennedy damns himself with his own voice. Kennedy flatters himself by
imagining that his book is heavy lifting.
What
Kennedy really objects to is Dr. Kilson's clear exposition of
where Kennedy fits within the shameful ranks of those who make careers
out of defaming their fellow African Americans. He and the rest of his
cash-and-carry crowd should prepare for much more of the same medicine.
Kilson's contribution to The Black Commentator was excerpted from his
"The Making of Black Intellectuals: Studies on the African-American
Intelligentsia," a work of two decades that will be published early
next year.
In this
grand, two-volume study, Kilson shows Kennedy to be a dim light on the
desolate right rim of the constellation of Black political thought.
Or,
as a reader named Von offered in an e-mail to :
Mr.
Randall is a selfish fool, and making a lot of money at the expense
of his people and his heritage. He's truly playing into the hand of
the many whites who have been dying to use the "N" word.
Whites will now think it's politically correct.
The
NAACP's Pre-emptive Cyber-Strike
The
goal of treachery is to surprise the victim. Certainly, the NAACP could
not have predicted, back in 1999, that the new century's most aggressive
popularizer of the word "nigger" would be a Black law professor
from Harvard University. Rather, the civil rights organization had its
eyes on the usual suspects among white hate groups when it registered
nigger.com as a domain name, along with other permutations of the word.
"We
wanted to make sure these domain names would not be used for derogatory
purposes," NAACP director of communications John White told Wired
News, three years ago. "We are the oldest civil rights organization
and it is within our charter to reduce hate in whatever way we can."
The
Anti-Defamation League used a similar strategy to deny Jew-haters access
to domains such as kike.com, .net and .org. However, ADL spokeswoman
Elizabeth Coleman admitted that any attempt to corner the market on
hate names amounts to "a symbolic gesture."
The
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation decided that taking "fag"
and other slurs out of online circulation wasn't worth the money. "We'd
rather focus on spending our limited funds on responding to defamation,"
said GLAAD's Will Doherty.
Gone
in a Flash
J.C.
Watts, the four-term Black Republican Congressman from a mostly white,
conservative Oklahoma district, is retiring at the age of 44. His departure
will have no substantive political effect whatsoever. Nevertheless,
his party will miss him.
Watts
spent all but the first two of his eight years on Capitol Hill as the
GOP's lone Black representative in the House. The former football player
must have withered under the endless photographic demands made on his
person, the only loyal Black body available. Each congressional occasion
of "conservative compassion" demanded his presence - photos
with everyone. No Republican "outreach" event was complete
without J.C. Watts on the marquee. Flash! Flash! Flash! A man could
catch a sunburn like this! It must have been maddening.
The
only threat Watts ever represented was to the decorum of the Congressional
Black Caucus. When Watts was swept into office on the Newt Gingrich
tide of 1994, Black Democrats dreaded having to figure out which rules
of etiquette apply when the enemy starts taking his meals in your living
room. Thankfully, the youthful lawmaker expressed no interest in joining
the CBC.
The
Caucus need not have worried. Watts was too busy posing for pictures
to spend time with the brothers and sisters of the opposition. He was
his party's indispensable man.
After
just two terms in the House, Watts became the GOP's fourth-ranking member.
Don't believe for a second that his breathtaking ascent was undeserved.
This man worked! What other congressperson had had his picture
taken with every other Republican in the House? Not one, I wager! What
other colleague's picture could a Utah congressman show to the three
Black Mormon Republicans back in Salt Lake City? Only J.C. would suffice.
As chairman
of the House Republican Conference, Watts was in charge of communications,
which meant - more pictures. One can hardly imagine the strain.
Watts was the executive in charge of producing messages praising the
congressional GOP's record of racial inclusion. Yet, he was also required
to play a featured role in every publicity package. Producer, director,
the only Black actor - don't tell me the man didn't have talent.
Goodbye,
Picture-Man.
Sincerely,
Glen
Ford
www.BlackCommentator.com,
Co-Publisher
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