(ThyBlackMan.com) I often wonder if intellect is scorned at large by the black community. Have we adopted it as xenophobic, rhetoric that is only productive to academic debates or the common use of vocabulary that stretches past the norm into opportunities to search the dictionary for clarity? This has become the juxtaposition that has rocked me mentally.
James Baldwin writes, “You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.” As Baldwin communicates to his nephew, he prophetically communicates to the masses. The 
unconcern for education has become a plague in the black community. The pursuit of money has trumped the need for scholarly vigor.
Cornel West wrestles with the thought that the black intellectual is in a “deep distrust and suspicion” amongst their own people. This is in part a two sided fault: one to the black intellectual, second to the black community. The black intellectual must always stay connected to the block while simultaneously be able to siphon information from the academia.
Dr. Eric Mason uses an interesting word, hybrid, to describe what this would look like in form. His stance is that one must be able to have dialog with those in academia but also have the street credibility with our brothers and sisters locked in the struggle.
The compulsion to bolt for perceived higher ground is always a place of tension for the black intellectual. The opportunity to reach more people because of greater resources trumps the need to be productive in a small microcosm known as your local community. So in turn the community suffers in order that one may grasp the golden dream but the servant leadership that is channeled through black intelligentsia is lost. So the very critique that black intellectuals are sharing with such candor is loss in translation because their actions are not connected to the ultimate survival of those in the struggle. They choose to go on “immersing oneself in and addressing oneself to the very culture and society that degrade and devalue the black community.” The talk is wonderful and insightful but the actions minimal at best.
The community presents the second side of the fault because they have misunderstood the need for black intellectuals. West states, “…the life of the mind I viewed as neither possessing intrinsic virtues nor harboring emanicapatory possibilities -solely short-term political gain and social status.” The black community has pigeon holed the black intellectual as one attempting to be white. For some reason the symbol of intelligence does not figure to have a black face. Juwanza Kunjufu describes James Coleman measurements (the first model in Adolescent Society) in the black community to mean that “athletes can work to develop their talents and that’s respected, but when good students do likewise it’s looked down upon.” This catering to be mediocre mentally has crept up in the minds of young black students and has started to slaughter their success to excel academically.
We must start the mission of turning this ship around and expecting the best from our children. We must hold them accountable for their inconsistencies academically. We must encourage them to read and to think critically about what they read. We must even get them to think critically about what they listen to as well. If they want to listen to certain types of music then engaged them in conversation about why they want to listen to something that has no value whatsoever. I am thankful for having a professor in college who encouraged me to read and from that I read like a beast for about 4 years.
Dr. William Gunn introduced topics that blew my mind and infuriated me. It was during those formative moments of my life, that I was challenged to be a black intellectual in my own right.
Just my thoughts…
Staff Writer; Brian Foulks
More articles can be found over at Mr. Folks personal website; Brian Foulks.
