Angel Joseph
Staff Writer
The problems blacks experience today can be solved only with truth and right action, said Tyrone Tillery, University of Houston history professor, in his discourse Monday on "The Crises of Black America: The Next Millennium."
He used the example of last year's election to illustrate the weight of race in this community.
It is because of the affirmative action issues on the ballot that many people who otherwise would not have voted did, according to Tillery.
He indicated that many still use race as the primary consideration when voting.
The truth blacks must recognize, Tillery said, is the fact that "many whites still view blacks through the prism of stereotypes ... even Hispanics and Asians from countries that are not predominantly black (also see blacks through these stereotypes)."
This is evident since, for example, white Europeans can come to this country and mobilize faster than blacks who have been in America for years, according to Tillery.
Tillery is not just blaming whites for the problems facing blacks. He said blacks also have stereotypes about whites.
Tillery told The Daily Cougar that the truth of the problem with black America is that "African Americans live in the past and not the future."
"They hold on to a romanticized notion of things that don't exist," he said, making reference to the African American view of Africa.
The problem with black America, said freshman psychology major Christy Williams, is that the past affects the future.
"We (African Americans) keep on remembering, and America wants us to forget," said Williams.
The black middle class did not function as other racial middle classes in history did, said Tillery.
The black middle and lower classes clashed against each other to such an extreme that, instead of the black middle class helping to raise up the lower class, a wedge of emnity developed between the two.
Tillery also criticized the apparent inactivity of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Tillery said that the NAACP "has not done much in recent history to advance black people."
"It is extraordinarily ineffective in moving African Americans forward, which was what it was created for," he continued.
Before his discourse, Tillery noted that it seems that Black History Month has become, ironically, a part of the various problems afflicting African Americans today.
This is the reason why it is his first time in six years speaking about black issues during events in the month of February.
He said that he is opposed to all the media coverage associated with the month of February, as newspapers and television stations neglect black issues after the month passes.
"I am betrayed every Feb. 28," Tillery said.
Americans, both black and white, are afraid to confront the truth, but it is only in the confrontation of truth, Tillery said, that there will be change.