From: HF.GTD@forsythe.stanford.edu (Gabrielle Daniels)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: Andrew Hacker in Palo Alto
Date: 28 Jan 93 01:03:18 GMT
Organization: Stanford University
NNTP-Posting-Host: morrow.stanford.edu

I just wanna say my best homegirl Omonike and I went to see and hear
Andrew Hacker last night at Printers' Inc in Palo Alto and despite
Ted Frank's smart-ass comments about the man's findings being bogus
(meaning, it don't serve us white folks' continuing aims to sustain
our privileges), we were encouraged by Hacker's talk.  We were
encouraged because there are white people like Hacker (and Jonathan
Kozol comes to mind, too) who have finally gotten IT about race in
America.  In other words, we hope that Hacker's got a few more years
left in this mundane, saha world so he can continue his anti-racism
work among white folks.  Even Thurgood said he got tired of trying
to educate whites.  Because white folks need to listen and read
about what this man has to say.  Its unfortunate, however, that when
white folks repeat what black folks have been saying all along, it
is only then that we are believed.
.
Hacker prefaced that his book is not about how black people feel
about race.  It's about what whites think and how they react about
black people.  He said that there is very little written or said
about what whites actually think and feel about their _whiteness_.
Hacker said that whites love to talk about how their forebears
created a great civilization in Europe, but they refuse to pay
homage to their African roots.  In other words, white folks fear
being dragged down to those primeval, African roots and look
themselves in the eye, in admitting blacks are truly deserving of
respect and humanity.

His thoughts about how whites fear, use and co-opt other racial
groups, like Asians and Hispanics, and showcase black folks like
Colin Powell, Bill Cosby and O.  J.  Simpson for self-defense
purposes were in line with what Afro-Americans have always known and
discussed with each other.  In other words, whites turn them into
_honorary white folks_ as a buffer against really having to deal
with black people.  Later, a couple of people tried to steer Hacker
into a black vs.  white discussion.  Again, Hacker explained that he
wished only to analyze the reactive motives of whites.
.
Hacker also exposed the myth of black crime. He said that whites are
more fearful of black violence against them as payback for the
atrocities their ancestors meted out (and still do) against us.
Black crime, he says, is no more prevalent than crime perpetrated by
whites.  The reason is that whites do most of their dirties in
private.  Blacks usually do it in the street, where everyone can
see.
.
Appearance versus reality.
.
What really got me was when Hacker fielded questions from the
audience, which was about 50-50 black and white, and SRO.  A young
white guy got up to say that there is a controversy in Left circles
about obtaining economic justice--jobs and education--for blacks
rather than going the political route.  Hacker countered:  _What
kind of jobs are you thinking of?  The usual sweating, toiling,
manual labor type of job that goes nowhere?  The kind of jobs that
fits their _condition_?_ It made me think of my comment, _Even Marx
is suspect._ All Omonike and I could do was shake our heads
affirmatively and signify to the bro.  Because this is true:  the
thinking and management jobs seem to go to whites or pass-for-white
blacks, while the rest must sit up and take instruction, no matter
what they have contributed to the company.
.
Hacker is just who he is in print.  In real life, he is this
intense, frail, thin white man with a ruddy face.  There is nothing
really distinctive about him, until he opens his mouth.  He prefers
and teaches undergrads at the City College of New York.  He said
that his transformation occurred during his years teaching
working-class and lower-middle class youngsters of color from
Queens.  Formerly, he was a professor at Cornell, where he found he
was bored teaching the children of his colleagues.
.
He said that in order for him to be able to teach these young people
who were probably the first in their families to go to college, he
had to give up and rework certain behaviors and attitudes he
formerly had about race and about class.  This, he admits, is a
lifetime process.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american