Perhaps nowhere is the role of the scholar so constantly questioned, revised, reviewed and criticized, as in the growing field of African-American scholarship. This field is no stranger to controversy. “Black studies” was born in the late 1960’s as an academic protest movement against racial inequity, inequality and injustice. But today, much of the questioning of the mission of black studies comes from scholars within its ranks who feel that, in gaining credibility in the predominantly white world of academe, black studies has become disconnected from the real world problems of African American people and communities. If the principal problems for black remain poverty and prisons, what’s the black intellectual to do?
Guests:
Raymond Winbush, Director of the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University
Adolph Reed, Professor of Political Science at New School University
Joy James, professor of Africana studies at Brown University
and Ronald Richardson, director of African American Studies at Boston University.