Temple U. and the Professor Anthony Monteiro Affair : ROMANTISING TREACHERY.
1... Tony Monteiro is one of the principal
organizers of Educators for Mumia Abu Jamal, a coalition of scholars and
academics who continue to wage a tireless campaign to free the revolutionary
activist..
2... Prof. Molefi Asante in his
statement, implies that Monteiro could
easily be replaced by “scores” of other African-American scholars.
Such a
statement should be correctly understood as a personal insult not only to
Monteiro, but to .. the countless Philadelphia residents who have benefitted
from his activism and engagement with the community
“Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a name
known among scholars, among activists, among sociologists, and among the people
of Philadelphia. A brilliant and incisive teacher and thinker, Dr. Monteiro is
a scholar’s scholar.”
4. . Sacaree Rhodes Homelessness Activist
says:
“People
like Molefi Asante sit around and plot on Black people. And then use the
word African-centricity. What the fuck is that?
You’ve
got to stop romanticizing about treachery,”-.
5..Prof.Anthony Monteiro, internationally recognized as
one of the world’s leading authorities on W.E.B. DuBois and the Black left
radical tradition, has been a fixture on the campus of Temple University in
Philadelphia for more than a decade.
His lectures, publications,
annual W.E.B. DuBois symposia, community engagement, leadership in the movement
to free Mumia Abu Jamal, and other activism have made him an indispensable
figure at Temple University, in Philadelphia, and in the Black scholarly
community more generally. So, the question then becomes…why was his contract
terminated? FOR THE REAL STORY-see below
Administration and community at odds over ousting of
Anthony Monteiro.
Sacaree
Rhodes, of The African Daughters of Fine Lineage, arrives to the applause of a
small gathering at a meeting in support of Arlene Ackerman on Tuesday at the
Kingsessing Recreation Center. (David M Warren / Staff Photographer by
Joe Brandt 11 March 2014![Sacaree Rhodes (middle) shouts at the Board of Trustees during a public session in Sullivan Hall on Monday. Students and community members gathered to protest the ousting of professor Anthony Monteiro. | JOHN MORITZ TTN]()
Sacaree
Rhodes (middle) shouts at the Board of Trustees during a public session in
Sullivan Hall on Monday. Students and community members gathered to protest the
ousting of professor Anthony Monteiro. | JOHN MORITZ TTN
Protesters against the dismissal of African-American studies
professor Anthony Monteiro demonstrated at the Board of Trustees’ general body
meeting held in Sullivan Hall on Monday. The protesters said Teresa
Soufas, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, was racially motivated in her
decision not to renew Monteiro’s contract
The protest
began outside Sullivan Hall two hours before the meeting, which was scheduled
to begin at 3:30 p.m. Temple and Philadelphia police officers were on the scene
and guarding the entrances.
“If you
think you can go forward without a black community, you might think you can
have black art and black music without black people,” Monteiro said at a speech
he made outside the building.
The board
meeting began with a memorial dedication to George Moore, secretary to the
Board of Trustees and university counsel, who died on March 2.
The board
also approved the executive committee’s recommendation to borrow $30 million to
cover expenses from April through June of this year, as well as the agendas of
the other committees.
The
protesters, who filed into the meeting several minutes after it started, began
shouting at the trustees when the establishment of a new CLA department was
resolved. Sacaree Rhodes, a community resident and member of the African
Daughters of Fine Lineage, shouted “Where are the black people on this
board?” toward Board Chairman Patrick O’Connor, who told Rhodes she was “out of
order” and that protesters could bring up their concerns at the end of the
meeting when “new business” could be addressed.
After the
trustees completed the remainder of scheduled discussion, O’Connor allowed
comments from the audience members, who asked why Monteiro was fired. O’Connor
promised to discuss the issue at a later time and adjourned the meeting. The
crowd responded with a chant of “justice for Monteiro.”
The crowd of
students, alumni and community members then gathered and staged a sit-in in the
second floor lobby of President Theobald’s office for about a half hour until
the administrators made a deal to have a discussion with the protest’s leaders,
on the condition that most of the crowd leave the premises.
“This is
kind of unprecedented,” O’Connor said of the subsequent meeting, also attended
by Theobald, Senior Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs
Ken Lawrence, Athletic Director Kevin Clark and Special Assistant to the
President Bill Bergman.
“We have
made a moral case because we feel an injustice,” Monteiro told the
representatives at the meeting. “As long as [Soufas] is here, the relationship
between this university and the black community is getting worse.”
When asked
about the possibility of a regularly scheduled meeting with members of the
community, O’Connor said, “I think it’s a great idea. I’m in favor of it.”
However,
when Rhodes, the community resident, told Theobald she believed it was his duty
to meet with community members from the North Central District to discuss any
topic of concern they had, Theobald said he disagreed.
After
O’Connor left to attend a separate meeting, Theobald continued the discussion,
which continued to focus on the relationship between the university and the
surrounding community, including the growing presence of gentrification.
When asked
about whether or not he had visited the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
of African-American historical documents, which is open to university students
and faculty at its location directly below the president’s office in Sullivan
Hall, Theobald said he had not been invited.
Theobald’s
comment drew uproar from the crowd, who asked why the president felt the need
to be invited to the renowned collection. Theobald appeared to grow flustered
at the sudden negative reaction and left to teach a scheduled class in his
office.
“I’ve never
been invited,” Theobald said. “And I don’t just go wandering around campus.”
Lawrence
later met and exchanged contact information with the protesters and said the
two parties will arrange another meeting at a later date.
“We’ll see
what happens,” Monteiro said of the next meeting. “This is a matter of courage.
It’s up to [Theobald]. It’s cut and dry that an unjust firing took place.”
Joe
Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@temple.edu or on Twitter @JBrandt_TU.
Claire Sasko contributed reporting.
Dr. Anthony Monteiro and
the Assault on the Black Radical Tradition
by ERIC
DRAITSER
The
recent firing of scholar and activist Dr. Anthony Monteiro from Temple
University is unquestionably a politically motivated and racist assault on a
world-renowned professor and community leader. However, it is equally an attack
upon the very foundation of higher education and the place of Black people,
Black politics, and Black communities within it.
Dr.
Monteiro, internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities
on W.E.B. DuBois and the Black left radical tradition, has been a fixture on
the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia for more than a decade. His
lectures, publications, annual W.E.B. DuBois symposia, community engagement,
leadership in the movement to free Mumia Abu Jamal, and other activism have
made him an indispensable figure at Temple University, in Philadelphia, and in
the Black scholarly community more generally. So, the question then becomes…why
was his contract terminated?
The Real
Story
The
events which led to the dismissal or, as Temple University Dean of the College
of Liberal Arts Teresa Soufas lovingly refers to it, his “non-renewal,” have
their roots in the struggle over the Chair of the African-American Studies
department.
In 2012, Soufas attempted to assert her
control over the historic African-American Studies program (the first in the
country to offer a PhD in Black Studies), by appointing her colleague and
ideological ally Dr. Jayne Drake as interim Chair of the program.
Dr. Drake, a white professor of American
literature, was installed over the vociferous objections of many in the
department and the campus community – objections voiced perhaps most strongly
by Dr. Monteiro.
Monteiro supported Dr. Kariamu Welsh, a tenured
professor from the Dance department of the Boyer College of Music and Dance to
chair the department.
In the
struggle that ensued, Dean Soufas attempted to impose her will on the program
with the appointment of Dr. Drake. Monteiro then led numerous demonstrations in
collaboration with campus and community groups to unseat Soufas’ viceroy and,
instead, reappoint the founder and former Chair of the program Dr. Molefi
Asante.
Despite
initial resistance and continued threats and attacks upon the integrity and
character of Dr. Monteiro, Soufas relented and Asante assumed the position of
Chair of the department in 2013.
Although
the struggle led by Monteiro was ultimately successful, this victory left a
bulls-eye on his back, and it seems that Dean Soufas used the issue of his
contract termination as her vengeance. As Dr. Monteiro stated:
This is a retaliatory act and
firing for the [protest] we held to get Dr. Molefi Kete Asante as the chair of
the [African-American Studies] department over her [Dean Soufas] objections…
It’s nothing except her anger…It
is her getting back at me for my standing up to her bullying, pointing fingers
at Black men, her authoritarian attempt to take over African American Studies
and my taking the struggles for the life and integrity of our department to the
Black community — those to whom we are
ultimately accountable.
When
asked about this critical question of the motivation and ultimate
responsibility for the decision to not renew the contract of one of the most
highly regarded lecturers on campus, the story takes on an added dimension.
Dean Soufas seems to imply that the ultimate decision was made by the
department Chair Molefi Asante himself, while Dr. Asante asserts that he
was merely informed of the Dean’s
decision.
Dean
Soufas stated on the record that there was “no
truth whatsoever” to Monteiro’s allegations. However, she also immediately pointed the finger at Dr. Asante who she
said ultimately collaborated in the decision not to renew Monteiro’s contract.
All
decisions about the renewal of contracts of non-tenure-track faculty members
are made jointly by department chairs and the dean’s office[emphasis
added]. Often when departments revise their curricula, it is necessary to
change faculty resources in the non-tenure-track ranks to match the new course
directions.
Dr.
Asante, the chairman of African-American Studies, is making some exciting
curriculum changes in the department and wanted different fields of study to be
covered by instructors.
Of
course, in response to the accusation that Asante himself made the decision,
Dr. Asante replied that:
The dean writes the letter when
she wants to write a letter about anybody in the department…Did she consult
with me to tell me what she was going to do? Yes, she did. I didn’t provide any
guidance at all. My position is he has a year-to-year contract and it’s up to
the dean… [I am] not worried about [Monteiro’s contract not being renewed]
because it is year-to-year…there are scores of African-American people who
could help us build this program. The thing you can’t worry about … if somebody
signs a [year-to-year] contract and then get upset when someone says your year
is up.
At
best, Asante
shows a complete disregard and utter betrayal of a colleague who, just a year
earlier, led the charge to have him reappointed to a prominent position.
At worst,
Asante actively participated in the decision to terminate Dr. Monteiro,
demonstrating an insidious willingness to collaborate with a vindictive attack
upon a colleague in the interest of pleasing those in positions of power.
In his statement, Asante implies
that Monteiro could easily be replaced by “scores” of other African-American
scholars.
Such a statement should be
correctly understood as a personal insult not only to Monteiro, but to the
thousands of undergraduate and graduate students at Temple who have studied
under him, as well as the countless Philadelphia residents who have benefitted
from his activism and engagement with the community.
Why
Monteiro Matters
Dr.
Monteiro, or Tony as his friends refer to him, is an absolutely essential
figure for Temple University, Philadelphia, and the Black community as a whole.
As a scholar and educator, he is world-renowned. He established the annual
W.E.B. DuBois symposium to bring together scholars and activists from all over
the world to not only celebrate DuBois’s great contributions to the fields of
sociology, anthropology, political philosophy, and race theory, but also to
engage communities in an understanding of DuBois’s relevance today.
It is
this connection between “the Academy” and the lives of working people, the poor
and the otherwise marginalized that truly illustrates what Tony is about.
Tony goes
further, leading the “Saturday Free School” which brought members of the
community of North Philadelphia and surrounding areas onto the campus of the
university – a grave sin in the eyes of the white establishment, investors, and
real estate developer “philanthropists” – to truly incorporate the black
community into the campus culture.
He has
worked tirelessly to bring together organized labor, community groups,
political associations and others in order to build coalitions that could represent
the interests of working people in and around Philadelphia and resist the
continued privatization, gentrification, and liquidation of the poor and
disadvantaged communities.
Tony is one of the principal
organizers of Educators for Mumia Abu Jamal, a coalition of scholars and
academics who continue to wage a tireless campaign to free the revolutionary
activist,
journalist, and leader Mumia Abu Jamal, as well as all other political
prisoners languishing in the Great American Gulag.
The
movement that Tony helped build has grown throughout the US and
internationally, with Monteiro as one of its key figures. Mumia himself, in speaking from prison about Dr. Monteiro, noted that, “Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a
name known among scholars, among activists, among sociologists, and among the
people of Philadelphia. A brilliant and incisive teacher and thinker, Dr.
Monteiro is a scholar’s scholar.”
Monteiro
has published over one hundred articles and essays in a wide variety of
journals and publications, engaging wide-ranging fields of study including
sociology, critical theory, African and African-American studies, and a host of
other disciplines. He is the most cited scholar in his department, and one of
the most cited DuBois scholars in the world.
His work has received acclaim from academics
the world over. For these reasons, he is respected by some of the most
prominent scholars and public intellectuals in the United States, including Dr.
Cornel West who, in support of Tony stated that Monteiro is, “one of our
grand intellectual freedom fighters who works in the tradition of W.E.B. DuBois
and C.L.R. James. I’m in his corner 120 percent…I’m so glad to see both his
students, as well as the community, rise up and support Dr. Monteiro.”
One would
think that with world famous intellectuals such as Cornel West and Mumia Abu
Jamal, among many others, speaking on his behalf, there would be no question
that Monteiro would be secure in his position, with tenure, and the respect
afforded to a public intellectual of his stature. However, that is not the
case. The question is why?
The
Neoliberal Purge of Black Radicalism in Academia
The
treatment of Dr. Monteiro by Asante and Soufas is worrying in and of itself.
However, even more troubling is the fact that it represents a continuing trend
within academia and, specifically, within the Black academic community. It
would seem that the “Age of Obama” has done wonders to make some corners of the
Black academic community feel as if, contrary to their previous status as
outsiders who felt it their responsibility to challenge the power structure and
agitate for radical progressive change, today there is a growing sense of
participation in power.
No doubt,
this is one of the deleterious effects of the Obama presidency where many white
and black liberal scholars have felt it their responsibility to close ranks
behind the President and, in so doing, transform the radical tradition itself.
In discussing precisely this development Glen Ford, the renowned political
commentator and Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, explained in the context of Angela Davis’s
support of Obama that:
The
“delusional effect” that swept Black America with the advent of the First Black
President has warped and weakened the mental powers of some of our most revered
icons – and it has been painful to behold…Angela Davis diminished herself as a
scholar and thinker in a gush of nonsense about the corporate executive in the
White House…She called [his] campaign a ‘victory, not of an individual, but
of…people who refused to believe that it was impossible to elect a person, a
Black person, who identified with the Black radical tradition’… Angela Davis
was saying that Barack Obama is a man who identifies with the Black radical
tradition. She said it casually, as if Black radicalism and Obama were not
antithetical terms; as if everything he has written, said and done in national
politics has not been a repudiation of the Black radical tradition.
Ford
correctly notes the feeling of betrayal by icons of the Black radical movement
willingly deluding themselves into believing that the ruling class has suddenly
transformed itself, that the black radical tradition, rather than being in
opposition to Obama and the neoliberal order, is now a part of it. For Angela
Davis, an icon of the liberation struggle and black academia, to spout this
narrative, is indicative of the transformation currently underway – a
transformation to sanitize the radical tradition and to annex it to the power
structure, with Obama as the catalyst.
This same
delusional thinking can be seen in the historical revisionism of Manning
Marable in his book Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention in which Marable, a
respected black scholar and author, essentially argued that Obama is the
natural inheritor of the tradition of Malcolm X and of black radicalism.
However, thankfully not all agree with such absurd revisionism. Noted author
and lecturer Jared Ball wrote in his book A Lie of
Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X that Marable’s book, “is a
corporate product, a simple commodity to be traded, but for more than money; it
is a carefully constructed ideological assault on history, on radical politics,
on historical and cultural memory, on the very idea of revolution.” Ball
essentially argues that Marable, like Angela Davis, purges the radicalism from
black radicalism in order to fit it within the narrative of contemporary
political discourse, namely the discourse of power, the discourse of inclusion
within the ruling class.
Davis and
Marable (before his death), along with Molefi Asante, represent not only a
betrayal of the radical tradition and a selling out to, and collusion with,
neoliberal capitalism in the “Age of Obama”, they have made themselves into the
arbiters of “acceptable discourse” within black academia. And it is precisely
this acceptable discourse that Dr. Anthony Monteiro rejects. And it is for
precisely this reason that Asante has spoken of “scores of African-Americans”
who can take his place. Indeed, there are scores of African-American scholars
willing and able to supplicate to corporate power and the de-radicalization of
the radical tradition.
But not
Monteiro. Rather than submit and cooperate, he continues to challenge power,
whether it is the derisive wag of Dean Soufas’ white finger, or the limitless
greed and racism of the white establishment and its black collaborators. He
opposes them both with vigor, with fervor, and with uncompromising ethical and
moral courage. He upholds the tradition of W.E.B. Dubois, and lives his
principles. This is why he has been attacked. And this is why he must be
supported.
Visit
“Justice for Dr. Anthony Monteiro” on Facebook to see how you can get involved.
If you are an educator, please contact Johanna.fernandez@baruch.cuny.edu or mark.taylor@ptsem.edu to sign the petition to
reinstate Dr. Monteiro.
Join Dr.
Monteiro and members of the community to show your support at a meeting of
Temple University’s Board of Trustees meeting:
Monday
March 10th, 2014 at 2pm.
Sullivan Hall
1330 Polett Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Eric
Draitser is
the founder of StopImperialism.com. He is an independent
geopolitical analyst based in New York City. You can reach him at ericdraitser@gmail.com.
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