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The Dilema of the Black Intellectual
A Vocational Challenge on Excellence
Introduction
I am afraid of the world that a black intellectual must exists.
Not because there is anything wrong with that title, but that there has always been a world where a black person is a peculiarity or ‘labeled’. Black slaves were forbidden to read and write. In other situations, black slaves who seemed to have superior intellect than other slaves were often killed by slave owners. White slave owners feared black intellect and found ways to suppress that. But the black intellectual has always existed.
There are, indeed, black intellectuals consequently because there have always been the need for black doctors, black lawyers, black teachers, black athletes, and black engineers, since there has only been a world where there were doctors and lawyers and teachers and athletes and presidents — those mentioned latter were presumed white.
A black intellect has been and is treated like an anomaly. But black people, have always been here regardless of the industry. Whether they were called monkeys or unicorns. They achieved in the sciences, medicines, and mathematics. To this day, in the academic world, there are challenges for the black intellect.
