Morehouse College, one of the most prominent “black” colleges in the United States, has just had something unusual happen.  Or at least it seems unusual.  They’ve just had their first white valedictorian.  His name is Joshua Packwood.  Some blacks are mad about it.

In some ways, the defensive pose is understandable. Black consciousness is rooted in the need for oppositional ideologies, developed to protect the community from the ignominy and violence resulting from racism. The Harlem Renaissance, negritude, the Black Arts and Black Power movements all sought to affirm the value of black and African culture, heritage and identity. In his essay “Orphée Noir,” the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre identified negritude as a sort of “anti-racist racism.”  

Hmm.  It’s an interesting problem.