The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

From cluelessness to enlightenment

Sometimes an idea for a column comes from the most unexpected place. Tuesday night I was engaged in an escalatory conflict between Black intellectualism and an African-American woman's opinion. It was a battle based entirely on the role that intellect should play in both of the aforementioned categories.

Now I would love to say that this battle was fair and the preponderance of Black intellectualism was moved to détente in fear that his inevitable victory would be pyrrhic, but this is just not the case. It was more like the argumentative grace of Charles Hamilton Houston versus the sophomoric banter of the Stacy Dash character from Clueless.

"Whatever" seemed to be the word of choice for many of Stacy Dash's casuistic claims that Black intellectualism did not require intellect, or the criterion of scholarship to be valid. In fact, it seemed that the ethical obligation to entitle one to an opinion overshadowed the need for that opinion to be critical and informed.

While many of Stacy Dash's opinions were specious at best, and I did not feel particularly enlightened by her conversation, I did however begin to ask myself new questions about the status of Black intellectualism in making claims about racial and cultural productions. If it is enough to judge opinions on their ethical weight, then how do African-Americans combat the conservative anti-black resurgence in this country?

Ideas are currency, and it is vital that African-Americans participate and dominate this marketplace. It is absolutely inadequate for African-American students to not advocate a "positive rights based position" that extends itself beyond the limits of the university. Black intellectualism must start in students advocating for more qualified teachers-i.e. Black teachers that understand Black history and post-colonial methodology. Black intellectualism is the responsibility that African-American students have to explore their own subjectivity in their respective discipline.

It is inadequate for Black political scientists to know nothing about politics most importantly, but also Critical Race Theory or Critical Legal Studies; it is inadequate for Black philosophy majors to know nothing about outsider jurisprudence; it is inadequate for black psychology majors to not know about multicultural psychology and Afrocentrism; in other words, it is inadequate because the university is an autopoietic system and it is reproducing the cultural norms and behaviors that African Americans have always found detrimental to the furthering of our political and social goals.

If we do not know the warrants and historical basis for our civil rights, then we invite these autopoietic assaults on our progress, our intellect, and more fundamentally our very being.

Our failure to understand and inquire about the world around us allows others to take advantage of our ignorance. When we fail to grasp the nuances of public opinions about our lives, we are unprepared to challenge opinion-makers and academes in their pseudo-intellectual attempts to overturn affirmative action and hold that racism works both against Blacks and whites. If we hold Stacy Dash's opinions, then how could we ever argue that there is no such thing as "reverse racism?" How could we justify affirmative action if we don't know that bona fide occupational qualifications prevent the hiring of unqualified minorities?

As African-Americans, we must demand that the theories and ideas of our society do more than extend an offer of inclusion to our communities. We must demand that these theories address our concerns, our political situations, our socio-economic crises through our intellectual representation and advocacy on predominantly white university campuses. Let's not be "CLUELESS" and retire from these forums because we are tired. Let's not choose to be unheard because of our social marginalization. We must advocate a race conscious corrective that begins with the growth of black intellectualism and turn away from the idea that the idea itself is worth more than the journey through its understanding.

Tommy is a graduate student. My Nommo appears every Thursday. These views do not necessarily reflect those of the DAILY EGYPTIAN.

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