THE CASE OF DR. MONTEIRO I am innocent of any personal or professional attacks on Dr. Monteiro. Dr. Monteiro never asked me to support him. I have no email, letter, or voicemail from him. He knows why he could not ask for support but he has never said it publicly. Dr. Monteiro’s appointment was year-to-year as were the appointments of several other Temple faculty members whose contracts were not renewed. Dr. Monteiro was not fired from a tenured professorship; he was not reappointed to a year-to-year contract. His case is not like that of Professor Haki Madhubuti’s nor is it like the case of Professor Lewis Gordon who actually resigned to take another job. Dr. Monteiro cannot demonstrate any personal or professional attack. I have always believed that maturity in consciousness demands rational as well as emotional action. African American Studies at Temple University is strong and vibrant. We are celebrating our 25th year of the Doctoral Program with many former students returning to lecture. We are scheduled for a major Indaba in April. No Temple University faculty has signed a petition to save Dr. Monteiro’s job because they understand the circumstance. Malcolm X understood that you never try to defend the indefensible. Ethics and morality must prevail or there can be no excellence. My colleagues sanctioned by appointment to the Chair at Temple. I reluctantly took the post in order to restore Temple’s position in the field. This year we have fifteen students presenting at the Cheikh Anta Diop Conference as we have urged a new assertion of the Afrocentric vision of agency. Dr. Monteiro has grieved that there is race discrimination against him. This will play out in the normal university process despite the call for community action. So why would Blackbird and Black Agenda Report demonstrate such animus toward me when my history and record as an Afrocentric Pan Africanist are clear?
No comments:
Post a Comment