No shortcuts to ethnic harmony, Gates tells Distinguished Speakers audience

By CHRISTINE VIDAL
Reporter Editor

Gates, Distinguished W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Humanities at Harvard University and a fierce defender of affirmative action, spoke Oct. 2 in the Center for the Arts Mainstage. His lecture was among the marquee events of UB's sesquicentennial celebration.

Gates, who also is a professor of English, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies and director of the DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard, titled his talk at UB "The Ethics of Identity."

"It's easy enough to poke fun at identity politics...but all politics are identity politics," he said. People too often think that gender orientation is something that only women have, sexual orientation is something that only gays have and racial orientation is something that only blacks have. "White boyism is a collective identity, too," he said. "Ethnicity-we can't live with it and we can't live without it."

While complete tolerance is impossible, Gates said, "multiculturalism is mutual accommodation, a stance of mutual tolerance and a willingness to err on the side of tolerance."

Consider nationalism in the wake of the Soviet empire, which, he noted, now has ethnic violence raging in no less than 48 states. "The problem of the 21st century will be the problem of ethnic identity," Gates said.

"Another problem with talking about identity politics is there is no identity without politics."

Identity politics are especially important in America, he said, because the U.S. has always seen itself as a plural nation. However, "the melting pot was never an uncontested ideal....Pluralism isn't supposed to be about policing boundaries. It is about breaking those boundaries down."

But breaking down boundaries is not easy. "There are no shortcuts to ethnic harmony and those who look to multiculturalism as a shortcut are bound to be disappointed," Gates said. "We must learn to live without the age-old dream of purity," and instead find contentment, solace and fulfillment in the rough cultural mix in which we live.

For the African-American culture, he said, today "is the best of times and it is the worst of times." There currently are 280,000 black men in prison, as opposed to 23,000 who will graduate this year from college, a ratio of 99 to 1.

"You don't have to fail in order to be black," he said. "You think that sounds ridiculous, don't you? We need more success individually and collectively. The black community must stop feeling guilty about success."

Even in a perfect world, he added, one cannot pretend that 35 million blacks will share the same economic class. "Even if racism were to disappear, we'll still be facing class differentials," Gates said.

"If Bill Clinton or Ross Perot had turned up at the Million Man March and handed over a $500 million check, would anyone have known what to do with it to eliminate the problems of the inner city?"

African Americans need to assume new leadership roles for, with and in the black community, even though being a leader does not mean being loved during one's lifetime. "What is at stake is nothing less than the survival of this country," Gates said. "We must accept our historical responsibility and accept Martin Luther King Jr.'s credo that none of us are free till all of us are free."

The importance of affirmative action cannot be overstated, said Gates, who noted he never would have gone to Yale without it. "That's why I get so ticked off at the Clarence Thomases. Who's benefited more from affirmative action than me? Well...Clarence Thomas," he said. "Those of us who care about diversity have to keep the best of affirmative action."

White women have benefitted perhaps the most from affirmative action, he said. "The transformation in the status of women, though not sufficient, has gone much more quickly than the transformation of people of color," Gates said. "Of course, there were terrible things done in the name of affirmative action, but there also were marvelous things done."

He said the Democratic Party needs to wise up about its need for the African-American vote. "I really don't like the way the Democrats take the black vote for granted....That's why I was hoping Colin Powell would run (on the Republican ticket)....How can you not vote for a brother, unless he's Clarence Thomas?"