In light of the response my most recent column received, I have decided to reexamine my disdain for student-led movements to tackle perceived problems of bigotry on our campus. In fact, noting the relative success of the “We Are Vanderbilt” initiative, I would like to take this opportunity to implore student groups, VSG and others, to take up another cause. It is time for students and the rest of the Vanderbilt community to stand up to the university about a very troubling aspect of our institution: the continued employment and support of English professor Houston A. Baker, Jr.
The Vanderbilt community became aware this week of Baker’s involvement with the university’s commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event, set for today, will be attended by everyone from the mildly radical left (James “The United States is the number one enemy of peace and justice in the world” Lawson) to the really radical left (Angela “America’s Most Wanted Black Panther” Davis). Baker himself was given headline status on the press releases and posters. That Vanderbilt would think to associate Baker with the anti-racist message of Dr. King should give students wishing to disassociate the university with hatefulness cause for concern.
Enlightened members of the community will note that last September’s issue of The Vanderbilt Torch (please excuse the shameless plug) featured Justin Offerman’s story covering the outlandish statements Baker made in regard to the Duke University lacrosse team rape accusation. Baker’s letter to the Duke administration was heavily quoted, offering a few gems to reveal the professor’s racially charged rhetoric.
The letter, available online, uses some form of the word “white” eleven times in the letter, each time referring to the lacrosse players in a derogatory manner. Baker stated that the university wished to “protect white, male, athletic violence,” and he complained about a “cover of silent whiteness” that protected these players. He referred to “drunken Duke boys” as the “young, white, violent, drunken men among us” and repeatedly wrote of “white privilege.”
Some may find these statements speaking truth to a serious problem; I find them unprofessional, hateful and racist. Of course, in those aspects, the letter pales in comparison to an e-mail Baker sent to the mother of an unindicted lacrosse player (sent from his Vanderbilt account) in December 2006, as Offerman also reported. In the e-mail, Baker called the woman’s son and his teammates “a scummy bunch of white males” who allegedly “beat up a gay man in Georgetown” and “get drunk in Durham,” calling them “a bunch of farm animals.”
Statements like these beg the common exercise: Let’s make the speaker a white man, replace “white” with “black,” and see the appropriate response. Angry tirades about the “young, black, violent, drunken men among us” or calling “a scummy bunch of black males … farm animals?” A white academic would be fired and ostracized for such comments, and rightfully so.
Why, then, does Baker get a pass, both by his employer and his field at large? He is regarded as the foremost thinker on African American and Diaspora Studies, practically building the discipline from scratch nearly 40 years ago. Such departments almost exclusively house far-left professors with far-left views, with Baker’s central role in the discipline’s development perhaps a critical contributing cause. He is also the past president of the Modern Language Association, and he has published extensively on literature, the Civil Rights movement and black identity.
These examples of Baker’s successful academic career certainly speak to his employment at such prolific institutes as Yale, Virginia, UPenn, Duke and now Vanderbilt. Of course, while I find his views on race in America completely misguided, I certainly cannot fault Vanderbilt for wanting to bring to the university a well-published, experienced and major name in academia.
But for Vanderbilt to include in today’s celebration Houston Baker, who has never publicly apologized or retracted any of his statements on the Duke lacrosse case, shows one of two things: Either Vanderbilt and the event’s organizers are ignorant to Baker’s racist rantings, or they simply don’t care.
The intent of “We Are Vanderbilt” was to raise awareness about a small group of students making irrational and indefensibly bigoted statements about other students. In recent time, Baker himself has made irrational and indefensibly bigoted statements about students. Perhaps VSG and other groups can start a movement to get our university to fire racist professors. That’s a pledge I can definitely sign.
Mike Warren is a sophomore in the College Arts and Science. He can be reached at michael.r.warren@vanderbilt.edu and blogs daily at Right-Wing Vitriol, the staff blog of the Vanderbilt Torch.
