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Barbara J. Fields, a professor of history at Columbia University, delivered the spring Charter Lecture on April 6. Some highlights:
“Race is as phony as a three-dollar bill. Racism is as real as the stock market. Some might say that racism cannot exist without race and that there needs to be a distinction. My question to them would be, ‘Does burning at the stake establish the reality of witchcraft? Or does it establish the reality of persecution?’”
“To say the term ‘racial epithet’ is to put lace trim on a repulsive figure. The word ‘nigger’ is not a racial epithet; it is a racist epithet.”
“Race is not an identity! Race is no more an identity than a taxpayer identification number. It is something that is assigned to you, like a brand on a steer. Identification from the outside often overcomes identity from the inside.”
“Let’s not teach children ‘tolerance.’ A tolerant person is one who has graciously consented to share the world with someone else’s ‘bad smell’-- sexual orientation, for example -- which disqualifies him from an automatic place in society. What children should be taught is self-respect, respect for others, and appropriate conduct in the presence of others.” |
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