Dr Boyce Names the Top 10 Black Scholars in America
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I wake up with strange thoughts on my brain. This morning, I woke up thinking about which Black scholars I feel have given the most to the Black community. My respect and appreciation for all Black scholars (even those who do not have PhDs) is without limit. But there are some that I feel have gone out of their way to be progressive enough to think outside the box and to have a true and real impact on the Black community.
I do not believe that scholarly contributions to the Black community are defined by writing a bunch of research papers that no one ever reads (although I’ve done plenty of that in my own career as part of my job description). I don’t think your contribution is captured by whether or not you have a chair at Harvard University (interacting with 4 or 5 privileged Black students a year) – although it’s okay to have a chaired position at Harvard. Much of the elitism of academia has always been a turnoff to me, since I believe the proof is in the potato salad. If your work is affecting real Black people and changing real Black lives, then you have my respect. If you are sitting in the ivory tower, claiming the masters house and hiding behind artificially constructed, racially-biased historical privilege which allows you to presume that you are better than everyone else, then you will have to be on someone else’s list. My belief is that a scholar should have SCHOLARLY IMPACT – which can be measured by the breadth and depth of impact your work has had on your target audience, as well as the size and scope of that audience. A journal with 50 readers per year does not possess sufficient breadth, depth or quality of impact to merit a meaningful career, in my opinion. Sure, it’s fun to publish in those journals, but after that, you may want to get out here and make a difference in that scary place called “the real world”.
Of course my opinion is not the only one out there. But I must confess that I was shocked at how many of our intellectual leaders aren’t leading anyone: many of us are quick to follow and promote the questionable norms created by our academic predecessors. We in academia are not much different from politicians who forget to serve their constituents, or pastors who, in their own quest for personal power, neglect to serve their Lord. Such small thinking is incredibly dangerous in Black America, since we really need our scholars to solve vital problems in our communities. We must accompany our capacity with sufficient courage to speak openly and honestly about the issues that affect those we love. In physics, force equals mass times acceleration, which means that we must connect our scholarly mass with social acceleration to create the necessary force to solve real and meaningful problems.
My dissertation chair (Rene Stulz at Ohio State University), is one of the leading 3 non-Black Financial scholars in the world (as measured by the number of publications in our so-called premier academic journals). He thought I was insane for choosing the career path that I picked, especially since he seemed to believe that he’d laid out the golden path for me as a Financial scholar (you know, all that Ivy League professor, top journal stuff that makes a small group of people think you’re special). But what I had to explain to Rene was that God has given me a different path: one in which I had to disengage from the pettiness of academia and pursue a more powerful purpose. The challenges of Black America call for active, interdisciplinary thought that is not afraid to challenge ideas created on an undeniably skewed racial foundation….we can’t afford be like everybody else – the waste is just too great. Rene still looks at me like I’m crazy when we see one another, but I respect his choices and I think he respects mine.
Now, onto the list of my favorite Black scholars – the list is in no particular order and if a certain scholar is not in the top 10, that doesn’t mean I don’t respect that individual. But there are some prominent names missing from the list, and I’ll let you guess why they aren’t there:
This was a tough assignment because the task at hand was biased. We were asked to make a list of the smartest people or scholars, but just because you have the paper behind you doesn’t mean you have “common sense.” Try getting out of the ghetto only using your degree? You better know how to mix that education with street skills and this is my list. I’ll give you Dr. Hill, but Bill O’Reilly whips him like a rented mule. Dr’s West and Dyson would be on anyone’s list because they mix education with common sense all the time. From this point I have to go off the board and select Dave Chappelle, Oprah, Maya Angelou, Rev. Wright, Bob Johnson, Rev. Farrakahn and I will be so bold to include “Bacodebus.” The accomplishments of the celebrities speak for themselves. Rev. Wright was the spiritual leader of the First Black President. Bob Johnson’s business skills are legendary and second to none. Rev. Farrakahn speaks and everyone listens even if we choose to disagree. As for “Bacodebus”, he led the drive to impeach President Clinton. He led the drive for Black Senate Representation as Al Gore’s Secret Internet advisor. He made history in the 2000 election with the God Strategy. In 2004 he hand selected the Kerry-Edwards Ticket with a baseball analogy. He provided the winning slogan “We Can” through the DNC in 2004. He had Kerry-Edwards beating Karl Rove and a war President. He put VP Dick Cheney in the bunker. He’s the “Bush Fly” and caused the missile defense funding paradigm to shift. He’s the Democratic Karl Rove. He helped beat Hillary Clinton and the Machine doing “Childish Things.” He led Democrats as they stood in opposition to Bush Administration as Bush shattered the Constitution. Democrats were right on every issue and Bacodebus was domestically spied upon. He also challenged Oprah Winfrey’s leadership group and the Young Democrats to get active by starting “The Revolution Not Televised” at WEBR. He combined Hip Hop and Centrist Politics to get out a message that led to the First Black President getting elected. If there is someone who actually did all these things don’t you think they should be on this list? If you don’t know who I’m talking about, then you better ask someone. Back o de bus is one bad brother getting it done without getting credit. The media and politicians are laughing at him in code. Petty grievances and childish things are code words. By the grace of God, one day the world will know. Now you know. I am Bacodebus.
None of your chosen scholars reflects the tradition of Afrikan centered scholars/Black Nationalists like John Henrik Clarke, Asa Hilliard, Amos Wilson, Dr. Ben or Frances Cress Welsing. All or most of yours are middle of the road, Eurocentric, can-we-just-get-along-types.
We should recognize that all scholarship is and should be goal oriented. It either supports the status quo or advocates change. Black scholarship therefore must be concerned with transforming Black GROUP status from weakness and dependence to power and self-determination. That calls for an altogether seperate agenda from merely integrating into American society; it calls for a redefining of the status and conditions of Afrikans in American society and a fundamental change in that relationship. Afrikan scholars must be concerned about the liberation, self-interest and control of the Afrikan community, whether in America, the Carribean, South and Central America or the Afrikan continent. Afrikan scholarship calls for a global perspective that includes the world-wide struggle against white domination and the alignment with other indigenous peoples facing that same fight. Culturally onscious scholars like Leonard Jeffries, Tony Martin, Randall Robinson, Theophile Obenga, Oba T’Shaka and Minister Farrakhan, just to name a few, must therefore be included in the mix. Finally, if Afrikan people are to succeed they must align ourselves with their own ancestral customs, traditions and deities.