What!? Apparently the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity chapter at the University of Virginia has seceded from the Black Fraternity Council and joined the Interfrat council. In one way it is a stunning development, in another way it is something that might have been predicted. Even when I was in college 20 years ago, our chapter flirted with the idea.
EARLIER this February, Office of African-American Affairs Dean M. Rick Turner kicked off Black History Month with a scathing critique that whites in Charlottesville won't "do anything for black folks." At the same time, the Iota Beta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. made history by leaving the Black Fraternity Council for the nonracial Inter-Fraternity Council. Given the stark contrast in worldviews underlying these actions, it was inevitable they would come to a head. And come to a head they did.
In characteristically flamboyant fashion, Turner went around Grounds and in classrooms publicly berating the decision as "disgraceful." After words were exchanged, letters and editorials were written and administrators and students weighed in, the two sides have now apparently decided to keep their dirty laundry between themselves. Turner and members of the Alphas could not be reached for comment. An administrator who had chimed in now refused to talk, as did an Alpha alumnus. Notwithstanding their reticence, the whole hullabaloo and the response to it represent everything that is wrong with how we approach race.
At the heart of this controversy is the concept of community. The Alphas' move was seen as a sellout to the "black community." Likewise, the media coverage that ensued was seen as an effort to exploit a schism in the black community. However, putting up a wall of silence now will not repair the breach. This is a problem that is here to stay as long as African-Americans are expected to march in lockstep with a leadership that is out of step. As long as they are led to believe in a racial ideology that imposes uniformity over individuality and "peoplehood" over personhood, neither the individuals nor the community will succeed.
This is an interesting moment for the prospects of the Talented Tenth. I'll be talking about the Talented Tenth this week in the context of the permanence of the Black Upper Middle Class and the Black Upper Class. I referred to them earlier in reference to the State of Black America conference. This also ties into Barack Obama's blackness, and the fate of blackness in black politics and black politics in America.
My preliminary assessment is that there is a continuing and perhaps an accelerating disintegration of black racial solidarity along class lines and that the success of integration is only a part of the reason. We may very well be seeing the beginnings of a blacklash that makes Ward Connorly seem mild by comparison.
Black Republicans and conservatives have been accused, often fairly, of adding insult to the injury of the continual black brain drain from underserved black communities by spiting the politics of ethnic social uplift. Is that merely the tip of an iceberg of resentment that's seething under the covers of black political debate? Is the war between blackfolks and 'niggers' about to begin as Chris Rock predicted? Was Bill Cosby's shot across the bow more than just a shot in the dark, but the beginning of an all out offensive?
Stay tuned. It could get ugly.
Recent Comments