Cudjoe’s classroom

It is a known fact that Professor Selywn R Cudjoe openly campaigned for the ruling party, prior to the administration change. Since securing victory at the polls. The Government has appointed  Professor Selwyn R Cudjoe to an influential Central Bank position. Professor Cudjoe has been appointed by Prime Minister Patrick Manning to the Race Relations Committee. Professor Cudjoe is also scheduled to represent Afro-Trinidadian culture at the 2003 Carifesta in Surinam.

Professor Cudjoe’s National Association for the Empowerment of African People (NAEAP) representatives such as Rose Janniere and Jennifer Johnson also hold official positions in the government of Trinidad and Tobago. Prime Minister Patrick Manning gave the feature address at the launch of Professor Cudjoe’s publication “Beyond Boundaries”. The purpose of listing Professor Cudjoe’s new found status in society is to bring home the point that Professor Cudjoe has the ear and sympathy of the Prime Minister and indeed the Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago. Therefore the statements made by Professor Cudjoe are much more important than they previously were as the professor is now in a position to transform his ideas into reality.

It is in this light that the statements made at the Second Annual Emancipation NAEAP (31st July. 2003, Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s) by President Prof Selwyn Cudjoe deserve examination. Professor Cudjoe urged  the Government to make race a criterion for university admission  similar to the recent American decision. “Eight percent of university students (in UWI) consist of one race. In the University of Michigan case a court ruled that race should be a factor in admissions. We in Trinidad and Tobago must do the same. Our Universities cannot be 90 percent East Indians and ten percent black people.” As an aside he added individual Africans must also do their part to gain admission. This declaration by Professor Cudjoe thus far has escaped comment from the University and other commentators. It is interesting to note that Professor Cudjoe does not extend the same liberal affirmative action programme in other areas such as employment within the public service, police, CEPEP, etc and other areas of State control. 

The celebrity Affirmative Action (AA) case that currently occupies Cudjoe’s spotlight involving the University of Michigan begs review. The admission-values formula for Michigan is as follows: 80 points for a perfect GPA, 20 for being a minority, 20 for being a scholarship athlete, 12 for a perfect SAT score, four for being the child of an alumnus, three for an outstanding essay, and bonus points for “socioeconomic status and other characteristics.” No artist in the world could draw such a clear illustration of absurdity for caring eyes to see. According to Michigan’s code of values, your skin-shade is twice as important as being superbly intelligent (as only those who even score near perfect on the SAT can be) and nearly seven times more important than having remarkable writing skills and a demonstrable grasp of the English language. Therefore, a study by the Center for Equal Opportunity found “the odds of being admitted if you were a black student with the same qualifications as a white applicant were 174-to-1.” (Wall Street Journal July 12, 2002) The median SAT score of admitted blacks being 230 points below that of whites; with the average GPA lagging by a half-point from a four-point system.

The great retreat that is AA is in full gear, and despite the many roadblocks of public outrage it has encountered, it continues ever backward-dozing on through the gates of US graduate schools, plunging recklessly into the damp, desultory abyss that awaits it. What is this abyss, exactly? Like most “progressive” causes, affirmative action could not be more ancient if it were a sensible Parisian thought. Its primary basis is the same that ruled the societies of status in the past: that it is legitimate to evaluate an individual based entirely on factors over which he has no control; not now, not then and, not ever. Whether that factor is color, caste or creed, the principle is the same: preordination above personal quality. In other words: collective judgment versus individual evaluation. (“Affirmative Action for the Insane” Alec Mouhibian Liberty Magazine,August 5, 2003)

Booker T Washington’s famous slogan was that the necessity for blacks was not to whine or seek government coercion, but “prepare to compete in the market.” (“Up From Slavery” Booker T. Washington) The free-market knows only objective value, not colour, and as such Washington explicitly saw it as the arena for the demise of racism. For racial-preferences is racism by any definition. Racial-preferences are premised on the purest kind of racism: the belief that certain races are innately inferior, needing lowered standards and expectations if ever to have a chance. The problem is enforced diversity, not of intellect and interest, but in levels of intellect and interest. The problem is a formula under which ability becomes liability, character is sacrificed to victimology, and independence succumbs to preordained grouping. These traits are most bluntly manifest in racial-preferences and the “hardships” system. But just as the admissions process is an example of the pervading decay of academe, so are there pervading consequences of the decay of the admissions process.  Keeping in mind that it expresses the core assumptions of affirmative action, examine Professor Cudjoe’s statement once more. What does it imply? Not only that Afro-Trinidadians are genetically inferior, but that the success of anyone is determined, not by his actions and merits, but his genetic code. It implies not only that Afro-Trinidadians need lowered standards, but that the success of any Afro-Trinidadian is thanks only to a handout.