Black Intellectualism

BLACK CULTURE may indeed be the most innovative and creative subculture within the American 'melting pot'. But this culture must embrace the intellectual world more fully if its true potential is to be reached. The black condition from which black culture emanates can be further enhanced only if blacks recognize the value of scholarship, the fruits of learning, the effects of knowing.

For too many black students, intellectualism is synonymous with the white academic world and its justification of the exploitation of black people. Theoretical inquiry is viewed as a trap in which one is politically co-opted and actively neutralized. Intellectualism becomes a world of empty theoretical assertions and irrelevant metaphysical abstractions.

In light of the indigenous pragmatism of American life and the political position of blacks, the emphasis among blacks on the concrete and the immediate is understandable. But stressing solely the concrete will not do in a post-industrial society, where knowledge is the prerequisite for action and morality an excluded variable in the decision of that action. Knowledge is not power, but potential power. Knowing is not acting, but is necessary for effective action.

The kind of knowledge needed by blacks is more than the mesmerizing rhetoric and the myopic prognosis of the para-intellectuals and self-acclaimed theoreticians of the past decade. We can no longer afford to transform profound political theorists--from Karl Marx to W.E.B. Du Bois to Frantz Fanon--into mythical characters, while turning their complex theories into catechistic blueprints for passionate action. Blacks need the kind of knowledge that flows from the subtle rationality of seriously committed intellectuals who have the enhancement of blacks foremost on their minds. We need the type of theoretical analysis that bases itself not on the hot emotionality of the moment but rather on the cold scrutiny of the past and present.

The subtle rationality of seriously committed intellectuals is best acquired in a cultural atmosphere that encourages scholarship. A culture that encourages scholarship, encourages liberation--for liberation presupposes that one knows where one is going as well as how to get there. Ineffective action is due not so much to powerful opposition as to conceptual misinformation. Intellectual commitment is as important as the very action which flows from it. We must note that Lenin graduated first in his law school class; Fanon was a top-notch psychiatrist; Marx was a competent Ph.D.

We must indeed learn to separate the negative from the positive in college learning; but more importantly to accentuate the positive. We must realize that there are certain neutral analytic tools within given disciplines that all must master, irrespective of political bend. In mastering the neutral analytic tools, one is then able to delineate one's own political biases by hypothesizing these biases, using the neutral analytic tools in a certain way to render a given conclusion or, if ingenious enough, by creating new analytic tools. It is no accident that the Cambridge-educated economist Joan Robinson aids Mao in his economic theories for the Chinese economy; or that Marxist historian Christopher Hill is Master of Balliol College, Oxford. They have mastered their respective fields--and superbly express their political biases in the context of their respective disciplines. It is imperative for blacks to attempt to do the same if knowledge is to have any effect on the black struggle.

Thus, it is of paramount importance for blacks to engage in scholarship. This scholastic engagement is undeniably valuable for blacks--culturally, politically and psychologically. Blacks will not only have firm representation in the production of scholarship, but more importantly, scholastic engagement will provide the black struggle with relevant knowledge and concrete strategies. As Fanon states, "The task of bringing the people to maturity will be made easier...by the high intellectual level of its leaders." This high intellectual level is necessary because the prerequisite of changing the world is understanding what it was, why it is what it is and how to change from what it is to what you feel it should be. The modern world has been, at least partially, shaped by modern theory, therefore one must be theoretical to understand it.

Karl Marx is alleged to have said, "Philosophers have attempted to interpret the world, but the point is to change it." He did not say that philosophers have attempted to understand the world--for understanding the world implies criticizing previous interpretations--which is the prerequisite and springboard for action. Hence, we can conclude that the effectiveness of action for the enhancing of blacks is directly proportionate to the quality of knowledge and understanding on which that action is based.

Cornel West '74 lives in Leverett House.