Partnership over Isolation in Black Studies: A Response to Mr. Mwatabu S. Okantah, assistant professor in the Department of Pan African Studies at Kent State University

By Richard Montgomery, ‘98

Thank you for your interest in my Open Letter to the Kent State University President regarding the defunding of the Department of Pan African Studies. I would like to address your response on behalf of the department, which you posted on the Culturelovefamily.com website.

In my letter to Dr. Lester Lefton, I argued three points.  First, there has been a significant loss of faculty in the Department of Pan African Studies over the past several years, many of which have not been replaced.  As a result, the department must offer fewer revenue generating courses.  This has compounded the second problem, the reduced capacity to teach core courses. This reduced capacity has resulted in a $600,000 budget deficit in the department.

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The case of Suzy Lee Weiss, a small mind attracting Big Ten attention

By Richard Montgomery

I am happy to report that over the past week there has been national outrage about the Open Letter that Suzy Lee Weiss wrote about being rejected from the Ivy League Colleges to which she applied for undergraduate admission.  In her letter, published in the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion section, her self-described “bitterness” and feelings of “failure” about not gaining Ivy League  admission were overshadowed by her blame of others, presumably in terms of Affirmative Action or diversity initiatives.  Weiss’ letter included questionable comments about same sex couples, Muslim women, people of color, and people from poor and impoverished areas, all of whom she presumes have a leg up on her in terms of college admissions.  A number of national media outlets (e.g. Huffington Post, Forbes.com) rebuked Weiss’s homophobic and racist commentary.  Interestingly, however, some schools in the Big Ten seemed compelled to accept Ms. Weiss as a student.

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Ohio Governor's Budget Proposal Leaves Minorities and Poor Children in the Cold

By Richard Montgomery

Last week, Ohio’s Governor unveiled his 2014 and 2015 funding proposals for the state’s elementary and secondary schools. The Governor proposes a $1.6 billion increase in funding to K-12 public institutions over the next two years. Among the major provisions were: 1) equalization grants for districts with low yield local contributions; 2) a continued reliance on local districts to levy property tax revenue; 3) increased funding for school vouchers to low income students; 4) funding for charter school facilities; and 5) $300 million for competitive statewide grants to districts trying new strategies that increase student learning. At face value, the elements of this budget are similar to many across the United States, but closer inspection of the allocation of this funding shows a significant number of affluent high performing school districts receiving 100% increases in their budgets, while a unanimous proportion of low performing urban districts received little if any increases.

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White Supremacists and Suicide Bombers

By Richard Montgomery

What do you call a White supremacist who walks into a crowd of Black college men and hands out fliers with hate speech? After speaking with the victims of this incident, they concluded that the White supremacist was essentially a suicide bomber. This person ran into a group of Black men armed with literature that would (based on White American stereotypes of Black men) invoke violence towards him, with the result being 10-15 Black men expelled from the university. Such a mass expulsion would amount to an otherwise victorious outcome for groups troubled by Black progress.

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Colorblind: Advocating cultural ignorance in Arizona schools

By Charisse N. Montgomery

For some time now, the state of Arizona has been working to outlaw cultural studies programs in its public schools. The reason the state cites for shutting down the program was that it “promote[s] resentment toward a race or class of people.” Although the Mexican American students enrolled in these cultural studies programs seem to benefit from the content, the possibility that they might view white or mainstream American culture critically is at issue.

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