Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Mindboggling

A commenter noticed the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education "Chronology of Major Landmarks in the Progress of African Americans in Higher Education." Some excerpts:

1823: Alexander Lucius Twilight becomes the first known African American to graduate from a college in the United States. He received a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in Vermont . . .

1847: David J. Peck is the first black to earn a degree from a medical college in the United States. Peck received his M.D. from Rush Medical College in Chicago and practiced in Philadelphia and later in Nicaragua . . .

1862: Mary Jane Patterson, a teacher, graduates with a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College. She is considered the first African-American woman to earn a bachelor’s degree . . .

1876: Edward Bouchet becomes the first black to earn a Ph.D. at an American university. He receives his doctorate in physics from Yale . . .

1877: Inman Page, a former slave, is elected student body president at Brown University. He is believed to be the first black to be elected student body president at any of the nation’s highest-ranked and predominantly white universities . . .

1912: Carter G. Woodson becomes the second black in the U.S. to earn a doctorate in history. His Ph.D. is from Harvard. He goes on to found the Journal of Negro History in 1916 and inaugurates Negro History Week in 1926 . . .

1921: Jasper Alston Atkins becomes the first black editor on the Yale Law Review . . .

1932: The Journal of Negro Education begins publication at Howard University . . .

1938: Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada is decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling required the state to either allow Lloyd Lionel Gaines to attend the University of Missouri School of Law or create another school that would provide the same education for him. In response, the university builds a black law school. Three months after the ruling, Lloyd Gaines left his apartment to buy some postage stamps. He was never seen again . . .

1944: The United Negro College Fund is established to raise money for private historically black colleges. Frederick Douglass Patterson is the founder . . .

1948: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Sipuel v. University of Oklahoma that Ada Sipuel be admitted to the law school at the University of Oklahoma. The ruling states that blacks have the right to a legal education of the same quality as whites . . .

1949: Wesley A. Brown becomes the first black to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Brown survived ridicule during his college years and served in the Navy’s civil engineering corps for 20 years . . .

1950: The Supreme Court rules in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education that black students admitted to the previously all-white graduate institution must not be segregated within the institution and must receive equal treatment in all aspects of the education process . . .

1954: In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional . . .

2006: Black literary scholar Houston A. Baker Jr. is highly critical of the Duke University administration for its handling of allegations about a sexual assault on a young black woman by members of the Duke lacrosse team. Weeks later, Baker announces he is leaving Duke for Vanderbilt University.

Keep in mind: Baker's guilt-presuming letter not only ten times, in a derogatory fashion, mentioned the students' race, but it also called for expelling 46 students without due process (based on allegations that turned out to be false). There's no indication of whether the JBHE editors took into account Baker's also referring to students at his former University as "farm animals."

That performance is considered a "major landmark" of African-Americans in higher education, to be included in the same summary as Brown, McLaurin, or the heroic achievements of the first black students to receive college degrees, Ph.D.'s, or edit Ivy League law reviews?

103 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its quite possible that Houston Baker is an editor of the JBHE.

Anonymous said...

An easy test - are the Journal's articles spelled correctly?

Anonymous said...

I say again: Baker and his ilk are the worst enemies of legitimate progress in diversity,integration, equal opportunity or advancement of colored people, whichever you may chose to call it. They destroy the good work of many others for the sake of their own egos.

G. Holman King
A proud Dule lacrosse grandparent
Granbury, TX

Anonymous said...

11:18 am,

Come on now. How can you expect a scholar such as Houston Baker to be concerned with something so mundane as spellcheck.

Anonymous said...

One would hope that some African Americans of dignity, integrity and TRUE higher education would see the disgrace this entry brings upon the heroic and truly historic accomplishments aforementioned. It so diminishes Journal, the people involved with the Journal, and the legacies of the real people and events which altered so much. That anyone AA would want the Duke Lacrosse humiliation to be a legacy for their race... baffling.

Anonymous said...

Is Baker a Communist?

Anonymous said...

A most excellent post.

Unfortunate frauds such as Houston Baker and his former colleagues of the Gritty Gang of 88 serve to illustrate the very negative consequences of affirmative-action-largesse-gone-wild.

This list is stunning.....as KC's signature understatement leaves the reader with a vivid picture of the vitiating quality of black intellectual leadership.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

I wonder why none of these high acheivers are profiled in the average Black History month celebrations? These individuals, minus Baker, should be the ones that young blacks and whites should remember as being the true trailblazers for a better life regadless of your station, race or gender.

Anonymous said...

"Mindboggling" is certainly the right word! I thought that was a very interesting list...until I got to the end. He doesn't even belong on the same list with those other pioneers!

If I were black, I'd be even more outraged!

Anonymous said...

If these race hustlers were in charge of things, incarcerating three white boys for something they didnt do would be the lest of "our" worries. Get a good look at what's going on in Zimbabwe for a glimmer of a future in which Payback is King. Run for your life scary, IMO.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, the following link is Mad TV and ridiculous; however, when compared to Duke's Gritty Gang and others of their ilk with whom we are so familiar, this little spoof seems almost......

.....real.

LIS!

Job_Interview_AA_Style

Debrah

Anonymous said...

That whirring sound you hear is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spinning in his grave. How did we go from him to Al Sharpton and Houston Baker in under forty years?

Anonymous said...

"It so diminishes Journal, the people involved with the Journal"

Does it really? Their stated reason for existence is to lobby for continued government-mandated quotas-by-ther-names for blacks. How much room for diminishment is left?

Anonymous said...

So, in over a half century, the best the JBHE could do is Houston Baker's criticism of the Duke case?
Is there any criticism in the black college community of this nonsense?
KC is right...mindboggling.

GaryB said...

Anyone who's lived long enough knows that one of the key purposes of life in this world is to produce ever more rich irony. That Houston Baker has become a carpetbagger and JBHE his scalawags should come as no surprise.

At first I didn't read the lead in paragraph so I thought this list was KC's and was going to complain about Houston's name besmirching the otherwise sound list. After a second take, I wanted to slap JBHE upside the head -- Houston's letter was mildly famous, but famous in the sense of Paris Hilton's fame -- egregious idiots (and even she now seems ashamed of that kind of fame).

Anonymous said...

Some other interesting trivia from JBHE:

"1974: Eight states, mainly in the South, submit plans to desegregate their state universities. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare accepts plans from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Plans from Mississippi are rejected and Louisiana is sued for not presenting a plan." (Louisiana didn't present a plan....lol)

"1996: California’s Proposition 209 is passed by California voters, banning the use of race in admissions to state universities. As a result, the number of black freshmen accepted at the University of California at Berkeley is down 57 percent in 1998, the first year the ban goes into effect.

1999: After threats of litigation, the University of Virginia admissions office ends a six-year-old scoring system that gave two extra bonus points (on a scale of eight) to black applicants. As a result, black enrollment in the freshman class drops from 11.2 percent in 1999 to 9.9 percent in 2004.

2000: Mount Holyoke College drops requirement for SATs in admission, causing a 50 percent increase in black applications and first-year enrollments.

2001: Affirmative action admissions program at the University of Georgia is ruled unconstitutional by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The next year black applicants drop by 20 percent.

2001: University of Texas Law School decides not to use LSAT scores as the “primary factor” in determining admission. As a result, black enrollments increase but not up to pre-Hopwood levels.

2003: After the Grutter ruling Rice University reinstates race-sensitive admissions, leading to a 60 percent increase in incoming black freshmen in the fall of 2003."

Is this clear evidence of the extent to which equality either exists or doesn't exist?

Anonymous said...

That list made me feel good and hopeful about the possibilities for humanity - until the last entry.

Damn the JBHE and all who sail in her.

Anonymous said...

I had been wondering if these guys are worth bothering with. It appears that they are. A little Googling found quite a few news articles of the form "JBHE finds institution underperforms on one of their diversity measures. Institution's admissions officers grovel and scrape and promise to allocate lots of funds to do better next year." These guys are part of the enforcment mechanism that intimidates college presidents into tolerating G88 types.

We need to attack their credibility (which KC is doing) and their funding.

Academic journals are rarely profit making ventures, so I suspect these guys get a lot of grant money, and I have a sick feeling that a lot of it is my tax money, but I don't know how to investigate that.


JBHE is published by "CH II Publishers"

CH II Publishers
Official Web Site: http://www.jbhe.com/
200 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 399-1084
Fax: (212) 245-1973
Email: info@jbhe.com


Theodore Cross
Editor and Publisher

Managing Editor
Robert Bruce Slater

Director of Research
Curtis R. Conway Jr.

Associate Editors
Camille A. Clarke
Caroline R. Gelb

Copy Editor
Elaine Kursch

Executive Assistant
Adrienne Cannella

Anybody know anything more about these people?

They also publish the "Race Relations Reporter."

"The Race Relations Reporter is a weekly electronic bulletin of news, surveys, and a chronicle of race-related incidents of discrimination, hate crimes, and hate group activity from across the United States. "

More google fun - this artice was pretty prophetic: The 26 Worst Colleges for White Students and Faculty. (They just used the "best" scorers in JBHE's 2002 integration rankings. Guess who came in first?)

Anonymous said...

We've seen this before -- desperation for something leads to lowering of standards, willingness to put forth false "facts", monumental hypocrisy, making an exemplar out of a low-life, etc.

Anonymous said...

It is worth clicking the Excerpts link in the first paragraph, Dr. Titcomb from Brandeis did a nice job and there is some impressive stuff here.

It is a shame to include Baker on this list, just as it was a shame to honor Nartey with the Griffith award.

Anonymous said...

Do you believe these people are consious of how rediculous they appear?

Just think, in a few more years well be back to seperate but equal by the demand of black America.

Tim Murray said...

As underscored by the "farm animal" excerpt, Baker and his ilk of self-righteous, all-knowing glib haters would not be -- and are not -- taken seriously anywhere outside the halls of academia. That is a fact. Charles Manson would not have written such a hate-filled note as this clown. Why he is accepted in polite society is the real question.

Anonymous said...

Why are you people so surprised that JBHE would honor Baker in its list?

They love him. White people don't get it.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that the JBHE listed the first black to graduate from the Naval Academy in 1949, but neglected to mention Henry O. Flipper who graduated from the US Military Academy (West Point, NY) in 1877.

Anonymous said...

The distinguished scholar has a most unflattering Wiki.

Wiki_on_Baker

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Gary

I found the entire list a bit pathetic. Instead of listing geniuses who have made a significant contribution to education, they choose to list "firsts." How much do you want to bet that some of these "firsts" are utter mediocrities?

Anonymous said...

So, let me get this straight.... Baker's actions are somehow something that blacks are proud of.

How many ways can the AA community make themselves look like idiots? I don't understand how it is that the black community can defend the actions of people like Baker. But then again...they are still defending a lying prostitute who fabricated a rape claim.

So, we shouldn't jump to conclusions in the Vick case (something I agree with) but it's a fantsatic watershed moment when Baker jumps to all kinds of conclusions and calls for the immediate expulsion of men who were merely accused of a crime that has now been proven false.

Who is the jackass who decided to put this information on this list? They must have attended the David Addison/Ubuntu school of truthtelling.

Anonymous said...

This is no different than a group that was "formed in the aftermath of the rape of a black woman by the Duke lacrosse team" holding a day of truthtelling.

Anonymous said...

TO Gary--

I do wish that some commenters would stop using Paris Hilton as a reference for everything negative under the sun.

Paris Hilton is who she is. A useless twit. Totally unrelated to someone like Houston Baker, Jr...a twit who has been given a position of responsibility.

Both seem to be childish and, in many respects, rather dumb; however, they do not share the same universe for such incessant comparisons to be made.

Houston Baker is a 64 year-old man who has been given every kind of special treatment that our society has to offer.....yet his way of life is to use the lucky position in which he finds himself---a position he has not earned through merit or hard work---to slander, libel, and viciously attack people just because their race is different from his own.

Paris Hilton is a very lucky woman because her grandfather and great-grandfather were great businessmen. That kind of luck is open to chance for everyone no matter what race.

Yes, she is a silly and self-destructive woman with too much time and money on her hands; however, I seriously doubt anyone else has been harmed by her bad habits and exhibitions.

Unlike Houston Baker and the Gritty Gang of 88, she is not working at an elite university with a title that is supposed to confer gravitas and scholarship.

Like that Vodka Chiller, that bottle of vino, or that huge slice of mocha cheesecake, consume at your own risk and pleasure. People like Hilton are the silly embroidery of life. Nothing to fear.

The only comparison that can be made between Hilton and Baker is that both of them come across as fundamentally very stupid people.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Let's be honest, folks. Who really cares *one whit* about the JBHE? This *journal* demeans itself. For KC to reveal it to be the fraudulent pap that is manifestly is amounts to little more than shooting fish in a barrel. Tangling with KC will only so the JBHE crowd what a real academic looks like. 'Nuff said.

Anonymous said...

This is beyond belief -- seriously.

Giving the JBHE some benefit of the doubt (although the list sure seems to mean what it says), I wonder if the "most recent" entry is changed on a regular or semi-regular basis, and the previous "most recent entry" just flushed away? -- not because the "latest entry" is claimed to be on a scale with "Brown v. Bd of Ed", but just to keep the timetable looking "fresh". Otherwise, putting Baker's slanders on the list can only be considered insane, and at best it is still ignorant.

Anonymous said...

Congress needs to create a national Houston Baker Day to honor the greatest scholar America has ever produced.

Anonymous said...

Someone must have hacked their site and added that to the list of achievements as a joke. It can't be serious.

Anonymous said...

Paris Hilton is okay. She has a five year hit show on TV, a best selling book and perfume. Best of all - fiqured out how to make appearance money. She is neither stupid, a twit or a parasite. We should all be so "stupid."

Anonymous said...

JBHE is the black academic's diversity officer.

It's all about enforcing race norming and "affirmative action."

That's why the editors love Houston Baker. He is a huge beneficiary of AA and he hates whites. The perfect scholar.

Anonymous said...

If this is a great moment for blacks and Baker's letter is to be celebrated, the black community is in far far worse shape than I thought. Perhaps they should make note of OJ Simpson's accomplishments and Jesse Jackson's "Hymietown" statement as well.

Anonymous said...

REF 12:58 pm
"Ranking America's Leading Universities on Their Success in Integrating African Americans"

"1. Duke University (Average Score: 90.36):
Clearly one explanation for strong performance of Duke in so many categories is the sincere commitment of Nan Keohane to racial diversity."

As Duke gave, the more vulnerable they became.
The cost of racial diversity is mindboggling.

Anonymous said...

TO 2:12PM--

Uh-huh.

You're right about that; however. I know very few people who actually work for that kind of an image.

Knowing how to squeeze a dollar out of everything does seem to run in the Hilton family. Even as none of them needs more money, Paris Hilton's mother was on the phone negotiating with the various networks for an interview with the soon-to-be released jailbird.

Her own mother was trying to make another million or two on the sorry lock-up scenario. I don't think her mother has a university education either.

I find money exciting as well. It's synonymous with freedom, IMO.....but thinking that just because this twit had some TV show makes her smart is hilarious to read.

Rachel Ray and Pat Robertson also have TV shows.....and?

Without the vast Conrad and Nicky Hilton financial fortune as a base, Paris would be working behind the makeup counter at Bloomingdale's......or JC Penney.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Off topic.

http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/columnists/reinharz/?content_id=3409

Article about another Duke Phd.

Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

Re: Anon @ 2:00

KC did not copy the entire list. Use the link in the posting to see that the list includes a substantial number of entries between 1954 and 2006, as well as some after the Houston Baker entry.

But, the fact remains that, as you said, "This is beyond belief -- seriously."

Yep...and paraphrasing the eloquent NASA astronaut Jim Lovell's now famous and appropriate statement:

"Houston, [you] have a problem."

I think its called a "cranial/rectal inversion." (head up his arse)

Anonymous said...

"Who really cares *one whit* about the JBHE? "

University presidents and admissions officers. If they get a bad grade from the JBHE the MSM will report that they're racists, and nothing they try to say in their own defense or critical of the JBHE's foundational assumptions will be heard.

As 2:20 said "JBHE is the black academic's diversity officer."

How can we reduce its influence? Public mockery seems to me a good place to start.

Anonymous said...

Is the name of the publication, "Journal of Blacks in Higher Education," racist? Do they follow the "one-drop rule," which provides that one drop of Sub-Saharan blood is "enough" to cause a person to be "Black."

I'm as confused as others seem to be. Gary Sheffield, a professional baseball player, recently called out a former teammate, Derek Jeter, because he "ain't all the way black."

In a poll, only 42 percent of African-Americans classified Tiger Woods as Black, compared to just 9 percent of Hispanics and 7 percent of Whites. If Barack Obama became a Professor after his eight-year-long stint as President of the United States, would he be lauded in the "Journal of Blacks in Higher Education," or will he have to wait for the founding of the "Journal of Multi-Racialists in Higher Education"? What if he does not want to be mentioned in a racist (i.e. based on race) journal?

As we move away from classifications based upon race, class and gender, many of these illogical inconsistencies will go away. Until then, what happens in the transgendered community when something like this happens:

PAT: "Welcome to the 'Durham Women Against Men' fundraiser. What should I put on your name tag?"

BILL: "Bill."

PAT: "Is that short for 'Billtilda'"?

BILL: "No, it's short for 'William.'"

PAT: "Well, we can't let you in with a name like that!"

BILL: "Wait a second, you can see I'm wearing women's clothing, and I can assure you I've adopted a transgendered outlook, and I have sex reassignment surgery scheduled for next Monday. Isn't that enough?"

PAT: "We'll see you on Tuesday, Buh bye."

Pretty soon, we will not have problems like this, but until that day, will various agendas fight the progress kicking and screaming?
______________

"When K.C. Johnson auditioned for the role of 'Indiana Jones,' Spielberg said: 'I love him, but there would be no sense of drama. The audience has to realistically belive that he might be defeated by an entire tribe of headhunters or a company of Nazi soldiers with tanks.'" The Making of an Icon (an Inman Prod.). MOO! Gregory

Anonymous said...

The majority of folk in America do not have a University education. They have jobs and work hard. does not make them substandard. Lots of University graduates have low paying jobs -like many of the liberal arts majors. There are also a lot of poor or unemployed lawyers. I don't know where Paris "would be". I only know where she is. Just because some folk are jealous of her, does not make her a witch - or her mother.

Anonymous said...

This would be ridiculous if it weren't true. I wonder how much editors the though put into this list- especially the addition of the 2006 Duke Lacrosse entry.

Anonymous said...

For a good time - go over to LS and read the Ward Churchill chat.

Anonymous said...

Carolyn says:

In studying the concentration camps of the Third Reich, I was struck by a method the SS used to destroy the inmates. They stripped them of their names and instead registered them as numbers. The SS learned their method from pre-civil plantations which stripped black slaves of their humanity by registering them as -- farm animals.

Wow, Houston Baker and JBHE! Really learned a lot from your history, didn't you? Keep learning like that and pretty soon you'll be goose stepping down Unter den Linden!

Anonymous said...

"How can we reduce its influence? Public mockery seems to me a good place to start."

I hope so because mocking these jive turkeys is a snap.

Anonymous said...

A must-read critique:

"Sun_People"....and_"Ice_People"

You definitely can't make this stuff up.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Baker didn't jump to any conclusions. He thinks that way from, as they say, jump street. He is a rascist bigot and a fraud.

Anonymous said...

If you want a big laugh, go to frontpagemag.com. There's an article about a black-radical "law professor", Regina Austin of the U Penn law school, who avers that minority communities "require an alternative source of authority."

Yes, boys and girls, black exceptionalism is everywhere, and one could opine that the Duke hoax was primarily about the evils of black exceptionalism.

Anonymous said...

Howard Baker is a black man standing up against white authority as exemplified by the Duke administration and the Lacrosse players.

Why should anyone care about trivial little things like due process and facts?

Anonymous said...

An excerpt:


The argument of Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy can be summed up briefly: (1) Black studies is an indispensable part of American higher education. (2) Rap is a creative and authentic expression of the urban black experience and should thus be taken seriously by academics, particularly those working in the field of black studies. (3) Anyone who disagrees with (1) or (2) is a racist. Mind you, Baker doesn’t actually call critics of black studies (or rap) “racists”—he’s too smart for that. There are subtler ways to sling the mud:

The late Allan Bloom’s influential The Closing of the American Mind commences with a sullen and dyspeptic account of the arrival of Black Studies [the term is always capitalized in Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy] at Cornell. This arrival is described by Bloom in darkly Miltonic terms as Paradise Lost, an expulsion from the academic garden of White Male Philosophical Privilege.
From a Black Studies perspective, the past twenty-five years have been a journey from bare seasons of migration to the flowering of scholarly innovation. From a conservative white male perspective, these same years must have seemed an enduring crisis, each new day and work of Black Studies bringing fresh anxieties of territorial loss.

Forgive me for not wheeling out the big guns, but life is too short to waste time wrangling over this kind of prattle, or the ideology that drives it. Neither is it worth summarizing Baker’s views on rap, since they are, controlling for polysyllables, mostly indistinguishable from those of the average thirteen-year-old, and are in any case asserted rather than demonstrated. Instead, I want to concentrate on certain stylistic aspects of Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy which reveal far more about Houston Baker than any respectful parsing of his ideas ever could.



Debrah

Anonymous said...

To Ralph @ 12:58pm

You are likely right. Compare The message of JBHE to the following item:

http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_6094.shtml

As I said in previous posts, some people at Duke do good things, and not all blacks are interested in hand-outs. My friends involved in this program talk only about how motivated and hard-working these students are.

Maybe Prof. Johnson could do a profile of Duke faculty who got it right and did the right things? We know of Prof. Coleman, but I would like to know more about Prof. Gustafson, for example, or Prof. Petters, who acknowledged the error of signing the initial statement. I heard him interviewd on Science Friday on NPR and I was impressed. He came across as a real scientist and academic, I've been wondering why he signed the statement.

Soc.Sc.Prof.

Anonymous said...

TO SocSC Professor--

With all due respect, we really do not need--nor would it be as riveting--to discuss endlessly those who already do the jobs for which they are well-paid.

That would be a waste of time.

Besides, in my heart of hearts, I believe that if ANY of the others professors at Duke were really doing stellar work, they would have modeled themselves a little closer to KC Johnson and would have been out front and vocal about the HOAX that was enabled and promoted by fellow employees at Duke.

Debrah

mac said...

Baker's inclusion on the list reminds me of the
song "Rock Me Amadeus,"
by Falco.
The middle lyrics are humerously similar to the "Chronology" of JBHE.

"1756, Salzburg, January 27, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born.
1761, at the age of five Amadeus begins composing
1773, he writes his first piano concerto
1782, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart marries Constance Weber
1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart becomes a Freemason
1791, Mozart composes "The Magic Flute," on December 5 of that same year, Mozart dies
1985, Austrian rock singer Falco records Rock Me Amadeus."

Baker couldn't support the marbles in the undergarments of
the people to whom he's compared.

Gary Packwood said...

Debrah 5:07 said...

...A must-read critique:
"Sun_People"....and_"Ice_People"
...You definitely can't make this stuff up.
::
Agreed. This is a must-read.

Terry Teachout (really?) in this article talks about ....James Traub who ....observes...

...but college officials found that a black-studies department was a relatively cheap way to buy campus peace. The Marxist historian Eugene Genovese accused these administrators of practicing “a benevolent paternalism that is neither more or less than racist.” The subsequent neglect of conventional academic standards in many black-studies departments suggests that Genovese was right.

Sounds familiar.
::
GP

Anonymous said...

CharlieFromBoston said...

Interesting that the JBHE listed the first black to graduate from the Naval Academy in 1949, but neglected to mention Henry O. Flipper who graduated from the US Military Academy (West Point, NY) in 1877.


It's a little-known sidelight that Flipper started at the Naval Academy but was forced to leave because of all the porpoise jokes. This "poisoned the water" for the next 72 years.

Anonymous said...

anon at 5:14:
Howard, we have a problem. . .

Anonymous said...

TO GP--

I'm trying to decide whether I'm a "sun person" or an "ice person"......or somewhere in between.

LOL!!!

Debrah

Gary Packwood said...

Soc.Sc.Prof. 5:26 said...

Re: http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_6094.shtml

This article notes that "Pipeline program hopes exposure to economics will help boost the abysmally low numbers of minority faculty in the discipline".

I hear what you are trying to say and I agree mostly...however this one makes me shake my head.

If an AABlack College junior or senior does not already know that there is a Supply/Demand problem for minorities in the profession of economics, I am not at all sure a pipeline program is going to help.
::
GP

mac said...

If you're Native American, or have a mix of blood in you
from Native Americans located around the Great Lakes area,
what does that make you:
a "sun person" or an "ice person?"

Baker: I'm a "moon person," as I offer mine for your viewing pleasure.

Gary Packwood said...

Debrah 6:00 said...

...TO GP--
...I'm trying to decide whether I'm a "sun person" or an "ice person"......or somewhere in between.
...LOL!!!
::
Yes. I'll think more about it over dinner, perhaps.

These designation are similar to the marketing hype used over here in Texas for the next BBQ restaurant or ice house. The owners are hoping and praying that someone is going to buy their 'brand' of BBQ...which of course, they don't.

Now there is a thought.

Perhaps Coco Chanel's creative director, Karl Lagerfeld is writing all this AABlack content...with Duke paying the freight.
::
GP

Anonymous said...

This being the case, does Professor (and I use the term loosely, VERY loosely) advocate throwing Michael Vick to a pack of starving, mistreated dogs. According to his logic, all those who are associated with Vick should also receive the same fate.
Nice going, Baker. Get a grip on reality. Your fantasy world is not anything close to the real world. Get out of the past. You demented attitude needs revising.

AF

Anonymous said...

TO "mac" (6:14PM)--

ROTFLM-T's-O !!!

And I might have laughed them off for good this time!

Debrah

Anonymous said...

This piece said it far better than I could have-

"To be sure, Houston Baker, Jr., is no worse than the rest of his fellow literary-theory racketeers. He commits no literary offenses that cannot be found in a hundred other equally stupid books published by a hundred other professors of other colors. More important, he is no Leonard Jeffries. But these things are beside the point. Everybody admits that Jeffries is the living embodiment of black studies at its worst. If the author of Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy is truly representative of the best black studies has to offer, then it necessarily follows that black studies is a joke, a pitiful and preposterous burlesque of scholarship foisted on the academy in the holy name of diversity."

mac said...

Debrah,

Thanks for the straight-line-setup-links!
You post some fine links!

And thanks for the picture, with regard to ROTFLM-T's-O!!!
I think I'll make a poster out of that
particularly indelible image.

Anonymous said...

anonymous at 3:23 quoted a "carolyn" who compared pre-civil war plantations with Nazi concentration camps in that people were numbered and slaves registered as "farm animals". I really need to see documentation of this. I suspect it is a well-known "fact". It is worth looking at some slavery myths. You are all smart people, here is a site you can look at. Take it, leave it, work it up yourself. But DO NOT take second hand history viewed through the lens of AAS and professional racists.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance61.html

Anonymous said...

TO GP (6:21PM)--

Yes, I quite agree. The depth of the subject matter might require more time to ponder its magnititude. Take some time over a long, leisurely dinner.

The smoldering brilliance of the sun people vs. the cool essence of the ice people.

***************************
About the barbecue.....go over to the H-S website and read Bob Ashley's column on the editorial page this past week. It's about the various lists of places to go if you want to eat some.

This passes for a column from the editor of a newspaper?

Isn't that kind of thing usually confined to the Lifestyle section?

GOL!

Debrah

Duke1965 said...

One of Baker's major points was that Duke needed to change it's predominant atmosphere of sexism, racism, drunken behavior and violence. But is that thesis really true? As far as crime and violent behavior goes, it's practically non-existent = the Duke campus is statistically much, much safer than Durham. Racism and sexism will always be with us, but is Duke really a hotbed of racism and sexism?? the current Duke students I talk to (including my daughter) laugh at the suggestion... if you've known many Duke women, overt sexism will be dealt with summarily. The vast majority of students are extremely open-minded about ethnic differences, while at the same time shaking their heads at some of the radical professors. It makes me wonder what campus Baker is talking about.............

Anonymous said...

The review of Houston's book was brillant and accurate.

Anonymous said...

11:37

Do you really believe Baker to be a scholar? Check Webster's, his picture is definitely NOT on the page with the definition of scholar.

Anonymous said...

1:37

After reading your post, I could not help but think of one of the Caveman commercials. The one where the caveman is asked if he wants to comment and he says "Yes. Er. WHAT?????"

Baffled by the 1:37.
AF

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I am dissappointed that KC thought that an earlier post, which was the truth as I knew it, was not fit for publication. I am trying to understand why.

Not PC enough? Or did he think I was Polanski?

Anonymous said...

I read the whole list and the list speaks volumes. Some of the entries are pure politics, others are pathetic. I noticed they never metioned the first woman to enter some of the black colleges. Some of the first are to make you think that it has taken so long for some women to enter fields such as medicine. My sister graduated form high school at the top of her class with a 4.0 GPA. She applied to a school of nursing--not pre-med. There were not laws against it, it just never occured to her to do it. My mom was an RN and so were 4 aunts. We had 3 uncles who were MDs. All the girls became nurses and the boys MDs. NO LAW. It was culture, family tradition, and the fact she wanted to get married and have kids. So there weren't that many women going into medicine and law, you cannot blame the govenment or college administrations for that.

We have so many immigrants here that don't have a list like this one for blacks. They don't need one. The facts of their lives speak for themselves.

My kids went to a music school for 5 years. The owner was a Jewish immigrant with one arm. The other had been shot off by the Germans. When he came here, he did not go on welfare. He perfected English, and since he could not play (he'd been a concert violinist), he knew he could teach. He started in the living room of his one-bedroom apartment. It grew and eventually he build a beautiful school, hired about 10 teachers, and does not brag or complain.

The Japanese who were interned--they never went on welfare, they picked up the pieces of their lives and don't need to be on a list.

I lived at the end of one of the railroads on the coast of California that had been built by Chinese indentured servants (another word for slaves). They could not afford to go back to China. It was a population of all men. White women would not have anything to do with them. They sent away for mail-order wives, started to till the ground, opened laundries, and sent their kids to college. They bought their land (from a plane you can see the beautiful agricultural land on the ocean), all worth in multiple millions of dollars, their kids got Ph.D.s in math and science and don't need their name on a list.

I could go on, but I made my point.

Anonymous said...

Houston, we have a problem

Nope

Houston, you ARE a problem. A scholar????? On what planet?

AF

PS KC is a professor. Baker is a fakir.

Anonymous said...

A side-bar update:

Lacrosse_Committee

Debrah

Anonymous said...

duke 1965 said:

One of Baker's major points was that Duke needed to change it's predominant atmosphere of sexism, racism, drunken behavior and violence.

uh, I think he is talking about the AAS annual faculty Kwanzaa party.

Anonymous said...

Looks like KC is our only site for comments since the faculty got to the Chronicle--see Chronicle message board disabled....

http://blog.dukechronicle.com/

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

TO 8:30PM--

A real power-post!

Debrah

kcjohnson9 said...

A quick note:

The Roots comments are off-topic for this thread.

The issue of the book's formulation and thesis is an interesting one--but beyond the scope of this blog.

Anonymous said...

KC...with all due respect...why are factually innacurate and inflammatory statements within the scope of this blog?

Re: Carolyn and the southern plantation.

Anonymous said...

I've thought about the motivation of the editors to include Baker's letter. Initially, I was baffled by this decision; upon reflection, I believe that the editors were trying to emphasize the gravitas of Baker's scholarly epistle, its ex cathedra seriousness.

To JBHE's editors, Herr Houston was indeed a BMOC (big man on campus)at Duke, someone to be respected, comme Don Corleone.

This would make a great children's book.

I thin Ima gonna cry.

Anonymous said...

New JBHE Roll of Honor highlight entry:

2007 Chauncey Nartey awarded William J. Griffith University Service Award by Duke University for warning lacrosse coach that the team might rape his teenage daughter.

Anonymous said...

Houston seems quite pleased with his new digs at Vanderbilt.

Houston_Preening_for_Vandy

Debrah

kcjohnson9 said...

To the 9.09:

I think I deleted all off-topic items, but if I missed one, e-mail me.

Anonymous said...

One wonders how so many in Durham can resent Duke University. They certainly have no hesitancy accepting its generous gifts:


Duke's expanding role

The Herald-Sun
Aug 1, 2007

A little more than a year ago, we lauded the Duke family's philanthropy after the Duke Endowment graciously handed over $527,000 to Duke University to help support the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. On Monday, we learned that the Charlotte-based endowment has been even more generous to the partnership this year, awarding it a $775,000 grant.

We're certain the good news was a great start to the week for the various neighborhood groups that will benefit from the endowment's generosity. For many local non-profit organizations, support from the endowment, through Duke, has sometimes been the difference between keeping the doors open and shutting them for good.

"Through God, we've been able to keep going, but Duke has really been our backbone," said Juanita McNeil, founder and program coordinator of the West End Community Center in the Lyon Park community.

Durham is indeed fortunate to have one of the nation's largest charitable foundations looking favorably on local efforts to improve the quality of life for residents. The partnership, established 11 years ago for that very purpose, has had no better friend than the Duke Endowment. Over the past nine years, the endowment has pumped $5 million into Duke's partnership programs in the Durham community.

The $775,000 grant award announced on Monday represents the largest the partnership has received since it was created in 1996 to improve living conditions for residents of 12 neighborhoods near Duke's campus. Improving student achievement in the seven schools serving those neighborhoods is also an important partnership goal.

In addition to worthy after school programs such as the one operating out of McNeil's West End center, partnership officials will also use the grant money to underwrite affordable housing programs, leadership training opportunities for nonprofits, the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Project, and tutoring and enrichment programs.

With the announcement of the Duke Endowment grant Monday, we are again reminded of the important and expanding civic role Duke University has in the Durham community. And Duke clearly understands that a strong Durham is critical to its continued success and prosperity.



Debrah

Anonymous said...

To the 8:47

Isn't it ironic that the 88, who chose the Chronicle as the medium in which to publish the 'listening ad' -- supposedly in an effort to start a "conversation -- have now succeeded in getting the Chronicle's message board shut down?

One Spook said...

Debra writes:

TO "mac" (6:14PM)--

ROTFLM-T's-O !!!

And I might have laughed them off for good this time!

Debrah


Not so fast, Debra ...

Laughing My T's Off

One Spook

Anonymous said...

If I were black, I'd be insulted by including Baker in that list.

Anonymous said...

TO Spook--

LOL!!!
LOL!!!
LOL!!!

How exquisitely clever!

Amazing that you remembered so many tidbits from previous posts.

You could really have a script for a comedy there. Too funny!

Maybe Hal Crowther will take a look at the finished piece of work. Just don't tell him to whom you refer with some of your characters. LIS!

Debrah

Anonymous said...

5:14

So Regina Austin gets to share her opinions in Frontpage, but Laurence Auster is booted for stating facts (and providing data) because a certain article raised some hackles.
Insidious.

One Spook said...

Debra writes:

"Maybe Hal Crowther will take a look at the finished piece of work. Just don't tell him to whom you refer with some of your characters. LIS!"

Actually, Hal has a bit part in the story ... in a later chapter he will offer to pay or the waiter's college education ...

One Spook

Anonymous said...

Carolyn says:

KC, my sincere apologies for being off-topic - also my apology if I was 'inflammatory'. Neither was my intent, sorry.

Anonymous said...

re Debrah's 9:55 - Good info

So if I'm contributing To Duke, I have to wise-up and know where my money is going. I mean over $5 mil
Mean while the tuition continues to rise, and the poor get tuition grants and subsidized loans, the rich can afford it, and the ones in the middle have to struggle in order to make it. What kind of university gives away that kind of money while raising tuition and related costs to near $50K per year?

Duke's generosity is a real tragedy in compasion (to borrow a phrase).

GaryB said...

Instead of listing geniuses ... they ...list "firsts." ... some ... "firsts" are ...mediocrities?
Aug 1, 2007 1:26:00 PM


I disagree. Many of these firsts marked real milestones in the history of freedom -- that blacks began more and more to have equal opportunities. Moreover, whether smart or not, I bet that most of these firsts were one or more of entrepreneurial/bold/persistent/adventurous which are more true markers of lifetime success than academic performance.

Certainly Edward Bouchet seems to have been genuinely top rate but didn't produce much academically because he could not get a job at a real equipped University and so spent his life training others in the sciences. That is a fairly heroic role IMHO.

None of this is to say that affirmative action does any good, in fact it does evil to all sides, at least on average. I think the main thing wrong with black culture these days is the "war on drugs" that makes crime pay, diverts/subverts black entrepreneurial talent etc. I'd end both.

GaryB said...

Debrah:"...stop using Paris Hilton as a reference for everything negative ... Totally unrelated to someone like Houston Baker, Jr"

'cmon, they both stumbled into unearned positions, but once there they played it for all it was worth. Houston is a shake down/take down artist, you'd want to watch your wallet/purse and other organs while around him. Paris is the same, but to the press. Both are of famous for ... being infamous.

That said, I'll concede in two areas there is no comparison:
(1) Paris has much better looks, and (2) she is by far the better scholar.

Anonymous said...

"Maybe Prof. Johnson could do a profile of Duke faculty who got it right and did the right things? We know of Prof. Coleman, but I would like to know more about Prof. Gustafson, for example, or Prof. Petters, who acknowledged the error of signing the initial statement."

I think he should, with particular focus on the question of whether they are being administratively or academically punished for their apostasy. Seriously, I'm concerned for their careers.

Anonymous said...

Houston Baker is the quintessential black scholar. He is to the academic community as Mike Nifong is to the legal community.

Anonymous said...

Here's an off topic comment - KC - Obama says he wants to bomb/invade Pakistan. But won't use nuclear weapons. Response?

Oh, I mean, you may delete this now. Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

I guess they forgot to include the fact that a female graduate student at Duke accused Baker of sexual assault. Karla Holloway, who was a dean at that time, took pains in making sure that that the allegations were quietly buried.

Anonymous said...

Anderson - I though it was sexual harassment - not assualt. This stuff is question - like your pal Ketha writing "She has insider information from a CU friend, that Ward's case is first ammenment rights. Rather than "serious research miscondult" and stealing from others. This makes both of your comments questionabale.