Dear Editor-in-Chief:
I write in strong objection to the misrepresentation of my views in Volume 1. No 3 of the Panther Magazine published as a special issue for Black History Month. As the Director of African and African Diaspora Studies, I strongly believe that Black History Month is of vital importance and this reflects the official position of the Program. This was not communicated in the several instances where I was referenced. In the article titled “Heroic Heritage” the impression was given that I was somehow not supportive of Black History Month. The quote attributed to me that Black History Month was a “special accommodation” was taken entirely out of context. Its placement on the front page was extraordinarily damaging. Its intent was to provide an example of a particularly racist understanding of Black History Month as merely an undeserved political concession to black people who had nothing to contribute to the modern civilized world. Even more egregious was the assertion on page 2 that “Hintzen believes that persons of African descent are moving from a stage of traditional savagery to a stage of civilization.” This was mentioned in the interview as an example of pervasive racist beliefs that make Black History Month so necessary and important because of its role in challenging, and rejecting as racist myths these unfortunately popular understandings of black history and black people in general. Black History Month is necessary and imperative precisely because it provides a space of struggle against pervasive anti-black racism. The narrative of black emergence from savagery to civilization is one of the most cruel, dangerous and devious examples that justify and normalize anti-black racism by those European thinkers who laid the groundwork for the evils and violence of white supremacy.
The purpose of Black History Month is to chronicle in the public arena the history of Black people and their contributions to civilization and to the development of the modern world. It serves to position black contributions at the very center of the modern human civilized project. It can be understood as an engagement in the perpetual struggle for black recognition and as a rejection of the myths and the violence that justify and normalize notions of white supremacy and European exclusivity.
We appreciate your acknowledgment and correction of the misrepresentations in your subsequent publication.
Sincerely,
Percy C. Hintzen
Professor and Director
African and African Diaspora Studies
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