The African American Intellectual

Post-Slavery Intellectualism

Since arriving to this country, African Americans have found themselves in a bind over trying to control their own lives while Whites practice exerting control over them (Clarke 368). After freedom, the dialogue among the thinkers of the group centered on questions of whether to return to Africa, stay in America or relocate to establish an independent Black state. Since African American intellectuals have yet to adequately address these questions, discussions in various forms of this dialogue continue today.

European ethnic groups brought Africans to America to make money from African unpaid labor. Since African Americans are the only ethnic group that came to America forcibly as captives, it is also the only ethnic group that does not owe anything to anyone. What this means, in part, is African Americans do not have to follow the established American ideals of artistic and intellectual development because they inhibit the group’s progress.

The Standards

Therefore, psychologically, African American intellectuals and artists are free to establish their own standards of intellectual and artistic achievements. The fact that Africans in America have had very little control over their social, political and economic lives in the country means their intellectuals do not need to abide by any American standards of intellectual pursuits. That is, the use of American intellectual standards will stifle or “control” the creative efforts of African American thinkers.

America’s Intellectual Focus

Much of America’s intellectual traditions, as stated in its fiction and non-fiction literature, explicitly say or imply that Africans in America are inferior people. For example, in 1963 Psychologist Henry E. Garrett wrote that the brain of an African American is smaller and more primitive than the brain of a White person (Guthrie 34). In Garrett’s estimation, size really does matter.

According to a 1970 speech at a conference by Professor Paul B. Barringer of the University of Virginia, “All things point to the fact that the Negro as a race is reverting to barbarism with the inordinate criminality and degradation of that state…” (qtd in Khamit-Kush 50). In the 1980 summer edition of the “Journal of American Culture,” author M. Fabre states: “It is clear that the scoundrel, the ape, the beast, the Black man are near equivalents…” (qtd in Khamit-Kush 28).

International Intellectualism

America’s brand of intellectualism also influences writers and thinkers of other countries. The idea of African inferiority is extremely prevalent outside the borders of the United States. For instance, a report in 1996 by Telos magazine states that an Ontario University Professor named Rushton stated: “Whites are more intelligent than Negroes; intelligence is overwhelmingly the result of genetic inheritance rather than environmental influence…” (qtd in Khamit-Kush 45).

America’s Scholarly Works

Much of America’s intellectual endeavors focus on trying to prove African American inferiority. Many books and periodicals carry this type of “scholarly” work. Therefore, in order to effectively guide and assist their group to help it to successfully negotiate the American system, African American intellectuals must set their own standards. If they use the American standards as a guide, however, they will render themselves useless to African Americans in particular and American society in general.

References:

Clark, John Henrik. Notes for an African World Revolution – Africans

at the Crossroads. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc., 1991.

Guthrie, Robert V. Even the Rat Was White – A Historical View

of Psychology. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

Khamit-Kush, Indus. What They Never Told You in History Class, Vol. I.

Brooklyn, New York: A&B Publishers, 1999.

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