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SEPTEMBER 16,1992
CAMPUS
Ring th« ^larm: The Meaning of Student fictivism
We are in the midst of a
revolution. Change is taking place
amongst us. Everywhere we turn,
we see a difference. We see the
masses of Black people coming out
at a moment’s notice. We see
Brothers and Sisters speaking to
each other on the yard. We see more
and more white people coming into
the Black Cultui^ Center office to
inquire about the impmace of a
free-standing facility. This is all
revolutionary. The most beautiful
aspect of this movement will come
in the spring when each of us who is
involved in the movement, find our
names printed individually in the
Daily Tar Heel. We will show true
committment to the struggle. We
will show the worid the true meaning
of revolution when we open up the
pages of a “newspaper” that many
of us regard with malice and find
the names of the many students
dedicated to the struggle for a free
standing Sonja Haynes Stone Black
Cultural Center printed under the
heading of “Deans List”
One might ask, “How can I go to
class, attend meetings, work on
committees, work at my job and
make the dean’s list Well, we have
the answer. In the spirit of Umoja
(unity) and Ujima (collective wwk
and responisbility), the Black
Student Movement and the Black
Awareness Council will sponsor
weekly study sessions. These
sessions will be held in Great Hall.
The purpose of this component of
the movement is to come together
in the spirit unity and with the
realizaton of our purpose for being
at this institution. This is a serious
endeavor and nota social gathering.
We must work in every aspect of
this struggle and for many, making
time to study seems to be a hardship.
There will be monitors is place to
ensure that the atmosphere is
conducive to studying, and we hope
that we can once again show the
seriousness of everyone involved
in this movement
We must in this time of change
continue in the way in which we
have started. We have recognized
the importance of unity. Now we
must realize the importance of
education. Many struggled so that
we may be here, just as we are
struggling to leave this campus
better for our predecessors. In order
to make things better, though, we
must excel academically. We must
redefine student activism to ensure
that we keep the words in this term
in the correct order. We are here,
first and foremost, as students. Just
as with most things that Black people
must endure, we must ensure that
we do well above average
academically. We must challenge
ourselves to excel in the classroom.
The fight for a free-standing Black
Cultural Center is a struggle for
empowerment and the recognition
of our culture. But further, it is the
need to educate the community
about the accomplishments and
contributions that Black people have
made throughout the world. Once
all of the controversy as to whether
our culture warrants the right to a
facility of its own is over, what we
will have is an educational resource.
This facility will serve the entire
community with the wealth of
knowledge about the experiences
of people of African descent
throughout the diaspora. We must
educate ourselves and our
community about our past, while at
the same time, prepare for the future.
Ring the Alarm is the column of
BSM President Michelle Thomas.
Stone Position Fffiedljy AFAH Music Expert
Professor JohnMichael Spencer
is an Associate Professor in the
African and Afro-American Studies
Curriculum filling the position of
the late Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone.
Although Spencer possesses four
degrees, 30 published articles, 17
published book reviews, two
compositional awards, and nine
research grants, to name a few, he
found time to "shoot the
breeze" with Co-Editor Chandra
McLean regarding a number of
issues.
BLACK INK: How does it feel
to take Sonja Stone’s place after
hearing so much about her and
knowing what a powerful impact
she had upon students?
SPENCER: I feel a certain
sense of responsiblility not to be
Sonja Stonebecausel’m adifferent
person,but I think that Sonja Stone
and I think a lot alike about certain
things in terms of our cultural
critiques. Also, Sonja Stone was
involved with trying to get me hired
by the University before I left Ehike
University for a position in Ohio,
and I understand thatshe was trying
to get me hired by the University
when I was in Ohio; I didn't know
that at the time. So I feel a sense of
gratitdude and I feel also, I suppose,
a sense of reverence that I‘m sitting
whCTC she sat; I’m teaching students
that she taught and to a degree. I’m
involved in the social concerns she
was involved with.
INK: I hear you are a minister as
well as a professor. Do you feel that
these two occupations interrelate ?
SPENCER; I’ve always viewed
my teaching as a kind of ministry,
and I think that when certain kinds
of infomation is made available to
African students and non-
African students, African-
American students,that I’m
engaging in a kind of
salvational work in
changing the minds and
leading students to new
insights, new abilities so
that they can go out and
engage in the life of the
mind, either in the academy
or among the masses.
INK: What motivated
you to become a professor in
African-American Studies?
SPENCER: Well, I have
always taught in, for the most part,
interdisciplinary fields such as
African-American studies. I first
taught at the Department of Music
for four years at North Carolina
Central University; then at the
Divinity School at Duke Uni versity;
then two years at the Department of
Popular Culture at Bowling Green
State University. So, to move into
another field I hadn’t taught in yet,
to move in a field that was
interdisciplinary like the last two
that I taught in and to teach in
African-American studies seems
like it had all been in the woiks-all
in the plan. My work in the
Department of Music, in the
Divinity School and the Department
of Popular Culture was basically in
the Department of African-
American Studies anyway. I taught
MB course on slave culture. I did a
reading here for the Uni versity staff.
P
Spencer Kickin’ Knowledge
faculty and students titled “Readings
in Egyptology,” and I taught a
course on the blues entitled
“American Blues Music.” I taught
a course on rap music entitled “Rap
and Race,” and so this kind of work
in the Department of Popular
Culture seems to have appointed
me to the African-American Studies
Department. So it made sense; this
is home for me; there is a lot of re
educating that needs to be done.
Look at Carter G. Woodson’s
relevance today in his message with
The Mis-Education of the Negro.
INK: How do you feel about the
actions and demonstrations
presently taking place on campus?
SPENCER: Well, I feel a sense
of this campus being very much
alive, and it’ sexciting to see students
being concerned and being
involved in many aspects of
campus life. This campus is so
much alive that I don’t regret
being here, compared to from
whence I came. In terms of the
students demonstrating, I
think there’s always a place
for demonstration, and we
cannot forget that many of
the advances that were
looked down upon at the
time of the Civil Rights
Movement were brought
about because of
demonstrations. We
wouldn’thaveblack studies
or African-American studies
curriculums today if
students hadn’t demonstrated on
campuses across the country during
the late 1960s and 1970s. And so
I’m sitting where I sit- here in the
African-American Studies
department- because students do a
lot of student demonstrating. Also,
students have demonstrated
throughout the world. In
Tiananmen Square students
demonstrated for democracy. I
think we give significance to these
things when they are at a distance,
and it may be that with some
hindsight-with some retrospective
distance-that the things that seem
threatening today to those that
oppose the students’ wants might
be appreciated tomorrow.
INK: How do you feel about a
free-standing Black Cultural
Center?
SPENCER: I don’t know all
the rationale for a free-standing
building or against a free-standing
building. My own interpretation of
potential hesitanceon thepartof the
administration is that there is &
symbolic relevance to having a free
standing building. It means you’re
taking what stands on that land
seriously. It also means that you’re
giving up land, and we know that
land, in a capitalistic western
society, is of significance in terms
of power. Wars have been fought
over land. Classism, sexism and, to
a degree, racism have -to some
extent- their rootage in land
ownership. Even in the first four
dynasties in Egypt, prior to land
ownership, there was an egalitarian
society- more egalitarian than
you’ve ever seen. But with the
coming of land ownership following
the fourth dynasty, we have then the
need for slavery, the need for
someone to work the land that’s
now owned. We then have the
coming of sexism or pauriarchy
because the male wants to pass on
the land to the male offspring, and
we have class strata—the land
owners versus the landless. So when
we trace the history of land and the
fact that students are demanding
land on which to build their building,
we can see the hesitance to give up
the land because land is of political,
economic, social and ideological
significance.