Angry in the Great White North

As odd as Professor Molefi Asante's theories might appear, he is considered a moderate in the Afrocentric community. The first consequence of legitimizing Afrocentric theory in a publicly funded school system will be a process of further radicalization. More extreme Afrocentric theories will be incorporated year after year. Any attempt to put on the brakes will be met with shrill accusations of racism.

What extreme theories are these?

In his classroom at City College (we depend on press reports), [Afrocentrist scholar Leonard] Jeffries propounds a black-supremacy theory, in which whites are Ice People-cruel, cold, and imperialistic-while Blacks are loving Sun People-warm, peaceable, and communal. He notoriously celebrated the Challenger disaster: it might slow the space program and "stop whites from spreading their filth through the universe."

Leonard Jeffries was ultimately removed from his teaching position at City College, but only after a bruising fight. As Afrocentrism becomes entrenched, "academic freedom" will be used as the justification to incorporate these sorts of ideas, which are the inevitable extensions of Professor Asante's "moderate" theories.

The second consequence will be a split in the education system. Afrocentrism will become entrenched, and its proponents secure in their position. Educational funding will be seen as a zero-sum game, and, consistent with their social theories, Afrocentrist educators will see funds going to "white" education as funds being denied to "black" education. Expect ugly fights over money to become the norm in the future.

The third consequence will be the loss of bright and promising students. There will be those black students who, for whatever reason, will see Afrocentrism as their calling. Instead of pursuing careers in law or medicine as a way of helping their community, they will be led to believe that the best thing they can do to help is to further develop the theories of Asante and Jeffries and their kind.

The fourth and final consequence reaches far beyond the education system. Among the future leaders of the black community will be graduates of the Afrocentrist curriculum being espoused by the BLAC Report. Not all will buy into the theories, but some will. Yet others will cynically use the rhetoric of black superiority they learned to rally community members. In all their dealings with the rest of Nova Scotia, they will look to the philosophy of victimization and ignored superiority for guidance. Constructive negotiation will be replaced with race-based acrimony.

The price for equity in education might be far more than Nova Scotians ever anticipated, and yet for all that, that laudable goal will lie farther away than ever.