Everyone Go Get Your Doctorate

I have attended two race based seminars at a highly esteemed University that will remain nameless and each time I've been woefully disappointed.

The presentations, given by visiting professors who are well adept at academic jargon and phraseology, couldn't seem to get past their words and jumbled concepts to make a clear, concise point.

In fact, they missed the point.

I have had the tedious pleasure of listening to an academician discuss his analysis of identifying bias in white Americans. When asked what factors may have contributed to those who were not biased, he responded that he didn't know. In fact, he hadn't thought about it. But a fellow academician in the audience had a theory. Maybe, she said, they had some sort of brain dis function where they couldn't discriminate, like, when they saw an Asian person, they didn't recognize them as Asian and therefore, they couldn't attach any racist stereotypes to them. The class thought it was a workable theory.

(Drop you jaw here)

Then I listened to another professor, who wanted to ascertain the essence of blackness. He wondered if cultural arts like jazz or the stylistics of African American preachers, were really just outgrowths of racism. If there had been no racism, he wondered, would these talents exist?

What?

Granted, trying to assess the identifiers for bias or trying to identify "blackness" in any kind of scientific module is difficult at best. While jazz, or gospel music, or even the plethora of black preachers might not have been created without slavery, the artistic talents of music making or colorful speaking predated racism's existence. But he didn't get that. He was too stuck on what is blackness.

So my advice to anyone with any sense, anyone who can make an argument, write, think, or break down concepts, please, please, please go get your doctorate. We can't have this disjointed logic spreading across the halls of America's Ivy League.