Prof's' lecture racist, anachronistic

The Building Academic Community speaker series is a brilliant gem of intellectual insight, thought, and creativity that any person walking around campus has access to this semester. Until March 12, the speakers in the series have shown a broad range of speaking styles and interests, all worthy of our community.

However, the week before Spring Break, James Clarke's lecture on "Black-on-Black Violence" clearly broke from this tradition. Mr. Clarke, who is a professor of political science, cited government statistics to present a narrow and biased view on why black- on- black violence occurs. In offering a historical perspective, professor Clarke quoted court documents from the pre-1950s South. His use of these quotations within the lecture did not serve a historical need, although he did manage to invoke white racist sentiments against Black Americans. Mr. Clarke then associated these racist sentiments to liquor, guns, and the domination and control of Black women to justify his view of a violent Black American culture.

When pressed for solutions, professor Clarke offered "frisking laws, gated communities, and more police on the streets" as possibilities, in fact, these solutions were a natural extension to the pre-1950s racial sentiments that he had already drawn upon. Mr. Clarke's lecture was ethnocentric, without compassion, and racist. His ideas would probably have a strong following in certain parts of northern Idaho and in social/political circles that seek a marginalized Black American underclass.

I understand that Mr. Clarke has been a professor for over 25 years. From this I can assume that he has an above average intellectual capacity for sound ideation and that he is familiar with speaking to culturally diverse audiences. Based on his lecture on Black-on-Black Violence, I can also assume that he is deeply embedded in the academic ivory tower and surely has lost his way in our community and the world at large.

By Michael Zelenkov (letter)
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 26, 1997