University of Virginia Library

Prof. Houston A. Baker

'America Has Immense Debt' To Blacks

Profile

By LYNN STERN

"God knows that America
has an immense debt to black
Americans in this country. The
wealth of the country in many
ways is built upon black
servitude without wages."
English Prof. Houston A Baker
notes with bitterness.

Mr. Baker, who teaches
black literature, is outspoken
in his criticism of the
treatment of blacks in
American society generally
and specifically on the
Grounds. He finds "the social
atmosphere for blacks at the
University oppressive, mainly
because the social life still
centers to a large extent in the
fraternities, and most of the
fraternities are white
fraternities. One feels a great
deal of psychological pressure
being in the minority"

Articulate Speaker

An articulate speaker Mr
Baker's pattern of speech lacks
the habitual "ums" and "you
knows" characteristics of most
young men He is a methodical
thinker, never losing his train
of thought even when
interrupted by a visitor or
sidetracked from the
conversation's main topic

His manner is as as
his attire   slacks and a
turtleneck sweater The
atmosphere is but
controlled When he wants to
stress a point, he
even more carefully,
accentuating each important
word

However, when Mr. Baker
begins to discuss the problems
that blacks must face, his
disposition becomes more
acrid

He notes with resentment.
"Blacks somehow had to be
classified as property before
whites could truly deal with
blacks The same is true today,
but it's done on a more
sophisticated scale"

"You are hired for a job
and you are told that we have
an 'advanced awareness
program' or a 'broader
horizons program' so that we
will give you a certain amount
of money to come to this
particular institution. It's still a
question of property," he
complains

At colleges today the black
American "is made to feel that
the school has somehow
lowered the standards to bring
him in stressed the financial
burden to do so, and that he is
never going to be at the
capacity of the white students
The white institution treats
these students in a patronizing
way, continuing to out
the finances to them But every
time they go into financial and
to pick up a heck the
attitude they have will reflect the
way they really feel about
blacks," Mr. Baker points out.

He believes that "black
students who might have gone
through a 'bourgeois' black
college and come out relatively
the same have come into a
'bourgeois' white institution
and have emerged with a
greater understanding of the
white American psyche, which
has produced a greater
animosity toward white
America." He finds it perfectly
understandable why this
happens.

"The fact is that American
education has always been
discriminatory, is still
discriminatory, and very few
steps are being taken to change
the situation now." Mr. Baker
asserts

When asked if he believes
that black militancy has
'turned whites off' to the black
cause, Mr Baker responds with
disgust that 'white people have
always been 'turned off' to the
black cause.

'No Appreciable Difference'

"I don't think that
anything that might come
about in the next 20 years or
has occurred in the last 15 years
has produced any appreciable
difference in the attitudes that
have prevailed in this country
from 1619 to 1973 There is
no such thing as a back lash

There is only a white lash," he
insists.

He observes a deficiency in
the amount of black culture at
the University. "Because black
culture is not generally
integrated into the University's
program, having one week
that's called Black Culture
Week is an important thing. It
is the only concentrated
exposure to the black
American that is available to
the University as a whole." Mr
Baker maintains

In his mind, this deficiency
of black culture is a major
factor involved in the
assignment of priorities in
terms of the artists who are
brought to Charlottesville.
"How do these priorities to
choose particular artists come
about so that I want to spend
my money for x, y, or z.
Whites have been sold a bill of
goods through advertising.
Their minds have been
manipulated so that what they