What about the future? Are you going to do this for the duration?
I can't imagine leaving Harvard. I have a kind of funny life now where I can do other things. I can sneak out and sneak back in. So I could flirt with making films and then I can come back. I can be a journalist and I can come back.
And be a celebrity?
I think that the biggest surprise of my career is that a scholar of African American studies could have a life as a public figure. That is amazing to me.
It's not true of only me. Look at Bill Wilson. That's a bad brother. And you know Cornel is going to get one of these medals.
The point is, it's a phenomenon larger than the individuals, and I think a lot of people in the field don't realize it. We're just going on about our business in the broader field of Afro-American studies, and our critics in the field don't have to be like us, but a rising tide lifts all boats.
If Harvard is investing millions of dollars in Afro-American studies, all these other schools will, too. Their peer institutions will, because they can't afford not to.... And there's enough room for all these other Black studies departments.
You can't just go any more and hold a gun to some White guy's head and expect then to write a check. Those days are over. You have to make people realize that the issues that affect Black people around the world, are not peripheral to the life of the mind.
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