Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher

What’s race got to do with it

Many African Americans view every incident involving blacks and whites as being racially charged. A good example of this is the reaction to the opposition to Condoleezza Rice coming to give the commencement address at Boston College.

Callers to Jimmy Myers’ morning program on WILD expressed varied opinions. Some insisted that a white woman Secretary of State would not be so “disrespected.” Others thought that blacks should no longer be concerned about her because she has betrayed black interests. And many failed to recognize that the protest was primarily politically motivated.

Few seemed to understand the process for selecting a commencement speaker. The decision is made by the president with the support of the trustees. The faculty has no role in the selection of the speaker. If there are a number of professors who seriously object to the invited guest, then it is customary for them to voice their opposition just as the 100 BC professors have done.

Some callers seemed to believe that since Condoleezza Rice was the invited guest of the university, then it was a breach of hospitality to assert that she should not receive the honorary doctorate of Boston College. It is customary for the commencement speaker to be so honored.

The problem here is that a university is supposed to provide an open forum for the expression of a variety of views, and some opinions will of course be unpopular. But that is no reason to deny the speaker access. Because of this long held code, BC professors could not assert that Rice be denied the right to speak, although they would prefer that the administration had invited someone else. The only course of action open to the protestors was to urge that Rice be allowed to speak but denied the university’s highest honor.

It is highly unlikely that the protesting professors were concerned with Rice’s race. Their opposition was clearly political. Massachusetts is a decidedly blue state. The protestors could easily find a sufficient number of policies of the Bush State Department to cause them to confront the Secretary of State.

Despite the opposition, Boston College has scored a coup in landing Condoleezza Rice as the commencement speaker. Every spring the major universities engage in a subtle contest to see who will attract the most prestigious speaker. In 1989 Boston University walked away with the prize when it had both President George Bush père and President Francois Mitterrand of France on the same podium.

What was occurring at Boston College was a battle which many blacks did not understand. In fact, most whites with little contact with the academy would also not have recognized what was going on. Since a prestigious African American was under attack, many blacks simply assumed it was another racial conflict.

The world is becoming too complex. African Americans who move ahead because of their superior education and talent will often enter a world which their brothers and sisters will not understand. The rules of engagement for competition in those environs are quite different from the neighborhood. As time goes by it will be increasingly more difficult to distinguish between racial discrimination and hard-nosed competition.

Blacks must now develop the sophistication to respond appropriately to racial discrimination while understanding that all prominent blacks will not always act in the best interests of African Americans. A case in point — Clarence Thomas.