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Horowitz lecture was insulting

I’ll admit it: David Horowitz hurt my feelings. I had heard the controversy surrounding this man, this ex-Black Panther, this supposed racist and bigot. I went to hear him speak in part for a class assignment and for a scholarly verbal contest as well as out of sheer intrigue.

But a scholarly debate did not occur. What I expected was some sort of monolithic man, an individual so informed and intelligent that other points of view were indefensible. What I viewed in the SMG auditorium was a man as small as his arguments, sheltered with the protection of, ironically enough, several black bodyguards. Not only were Horowitz’ arguments overly simplistic, denying such a divisive issue the proper room for discussion, but they were greatly irrelevant and evasive. Stating that the world will always be racist and bigoted is a sorry excuse and was sadly the foundation for many of the statements Horowitz gave last night. The fact that Horowitz profits from such banter is what disturbs me.

I will give Horowitz this credit, however, in that he is an effective “distortionist”. He is quite good at distorting little truths and creating big lies out of them. His reparations argument is a scam, as he merely repeats familiar adages and poses them as novel ideas. Horowitz’ main arguments took a familiar shape: throwing money at a problem won’t solve anything; proving the identity of slave descendants is not feasible; blacks don’t have it so bad and should stop complaining. These are all red herrings that avoid the point at issue; I refuse to waste time trying to prove that giving people money definitely will empower them, that proving slavery lineage has any significance whatsoever, or entertaining the subjective argument over how good blacks “have it.”

There are simply more worthwhile conversations. Problems that exist in the black community cannot be simplified to an economic argument of reparations. Many of the problems in the black community stem from something the Harvard scholar Cornel West refers to as “black nihilism,” or the “profound sense of psychological depression, personal worthlessness and social despair” that pervades black culture. Tell me that a person who feels that he is nothing can and will amount to something, and I will let you throw money at the black ghetto. Tell me that a person who sees himself as merely a pawn in a conundrum of cycles, and cycles of poverty can escape this pattern simply by having another parent in the home, and I will support the behaviorist argument.

If we had the solution, if we could throw a government program at a group of people and instantly make them feel valuable, I do believe that perhaps we would not have to hear from a misguided Horowitz, who spouts lines like “Everyone’s racist,” and “Blacks should feel indebted to America.” When the black community obtains this sense of self-worth, perhaps the future demise of economic and social predicaments, such as black crime and poverty, will reflect this newfound confidence.

We’ve come a long way since Africa, according to Horowitz. I know that when Horowitz speaks of blacks not having it so tough, he speaks to me. I am a middle class black female, raised by two parents and educated by private institutions. Pointing the finger at me, calling me greedy and comparing me to the likes of a money hungry Jesse Jackson, however, is a slap in the face; the issue of money is irrelevant, and Horowitz knows it. Jackson’s questionable financial behavior aside, I find it highly illogical that rich blacks are begging for reparations to better their own lot.

Horowitz began his speech by scoffing at those who found his arguments offensive and arguing that real world adults have as much the right to hurt people’s feelings as those offended have in calling them assholes. I found this a rather childish way of confronting the large issue of race relations. Horowitz is correct in that racism is not going to disappear. No one claims that reparations or affirmative action will eradicate such a social disease. However, one would expect more productive talk from an ex-civil rights activist, rather than the pitiful cop-out he displayed last evening.

Candace Hines CAS ’01

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