Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

seriously conceive of such a University
. It has been a general problem
in Western education ever since
the advent of the new science . It
was particularly crystallized in tire
19th century in the exchange between
Matthew Arnold and Thomas
Huxley . It is still with us in
the crisis of the two cultures as
described by C . P . Snow . It is still
with us in the growing dissatisfaction
with General Education programs,
as well as a rather common
awareness that Science alone cannot
satisfy all of the complex needs
of human society and culture . It is
still with us in the widespread fear
that a society completely dominated
by science might eventually
deprive us of those very values
which make human life meaningful
. Thus, if anything, if the Black
University is predicated upon the
intrinsic human value of philosophical
blackness, or SOUL, the
conflict between the humanistic
studies and the natural sciences
could conceivably be heightened
still further . And if, as I assume, the
Black University would probably
come into existence as a result of
modifying the structure of some
one or more of the existing liberal
arts colleges which have science departments
firmly entrenched in the
academic life, other practical and
theoretical problems are generated .
Suppose, for example, that at
College X an ideal situation exists
in which the administration and the
board of trustees agree to change
the identity of the college in order
82
to make it a Black College or a de
facto unit in a larger Black University
. What should be their attitude
toward the mathematics
courses and the courses in the natural
sciences? What should be their
attitude toward the Black Humanists,
assuming again an ideal situation,
who teach these courses?
What should be their attitude toward
the black student who is already
discovering himself and his
world through an exploration of
the Black Experience but who happens
to be a physics major? Should
they, with a black stroke of the pen,
wipe out as anti-Soul, and thus
anti-black, the entire department'?
Of' course not, for such an action
would be in itself divisive and hence
anti-Soul . It would chop both student
and professor straight down
the middle, producing the very
kind of fractured sensibility which
is the tragic inheritance of modern
Western life .
Then what recourse is there? A
return to a pre-scientific state? This
is clearly impractical, even if it were
desirable . As I see it, it is not only
undesirable ; it is foolish . Science is
here to stay . Technology, a stepsister
of science, is also here to stay .
Not only must Afro-Americans
come to grips with that fact, so also
must the so-called Third World .
And so in fact they have Witness
the Aswan High Dam . Witness the
brilliant successes of the Chinese in
nuclear physics . Witness the history
of Japan since the contact
with the West . Lest one dismiss this
March 1968 NEGRO DIGEST