Letter to the Editor:
In Response to "White Blame, Black Silence,"
Unpublished letter to the New
York Times, 15 December 1990.
In Response to "Black Silence"
Unpublished Letter
Princeton, NJ 08540
15 December 1990
The New York Times Company
229 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
To the Editor:
In an essay on the Op-Ed page on 13 December 1990 that was entitled "White
Blame, Black Silence," Andrew Hacker contrasted white New Yorkers'
demand for a black response to recent events with a relative lack of black
answers. Very rightly, Hacker explains blacks' restraint as expressions
of ambivalence and racial unity. He misses one crucial reason for holding
one's tongue, however: the knowledge of certain retribution of a physically
or rhetorically violent nature. Blacks who speak up realize that while
white supremacists may be more brutal, attacks from the black side can
also be hurtful.
Any black person with a public voice discovers (at the very least) that
his or her mail is full of hate. Considering the fate of outspoken African-Americans,
one becomes an optimist to hope that the abuse stops at merely verbal
attacks. A glance into history reveals that autonomous black speech often
exacts a high personal price. W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson and Martin
Luther King, Jr., endured years of official surveillance; Malcolm X was
assassinated by erstwhile co-religionists; Angela Davis went to prison.
Even when it's not that costly, independently-minded black speech about
racial matters is still controversial enough to have its price. Dealing
with the attacks and demands generated by just one speech act diverts
the black speaker from his or her regular work. It becomes difficult to
get anything done but speak and speak about speaking. Wanting to pursue
one's own life work is a powerful disincentive against public utterance.
Sincerely,
Nell Irvin Painter
Professor of History,
Princeton University
P.S. For corroboration, contact Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., who received
racist attacks after he was featured in the Times Magazine.
Return to top Return to Letters |
