What you really need to do is forget your experience and become a part of the so-called 'melting pot', which has never been the case. I don't get the same type of political consciousness from students as I saw 25 years ago. When we were in the hey day of that, people were energized around issues. Also, racism today is more covert, and harder to see as supposed to how overt it was at that time. One of the most difficult beliefs to address, is the one that specialized studies are only for the specialized group.
Most people think black studies is just for blacks.
As future professionals, he feels knowledge of different groups will be beneficial to all students. There are 800,000 blacks in Southeastern Michigan. Most folks will have to work with people of color. Therefore, it is important they know something about these people.