University of Virginia Library

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.