Dear Editor,
Kudos for Black Issues’ recent coverage of the values of and seminal issues confronting Black culture centers, as well as your historical summary of the Association for Black Culture Centers (ABCC) (see Black Issues, Feb. 14). As ABCC founder and current executive director, I nonetheless need to raise the issue of how my position on the sensitive situation at North Carolina State University regarding the reassessment of their center was projected.
As an outsider who was asked by the (North Carolina State University) administration to be one of the consultants reviewing the Black cultural center, I had the following concerns:
l) Some consultants had minimal knowledge of the most common purposes of Black culture centers;
2) One prevailing internal view was that centers should be primarily academic; and
3) I did not get to see many of the center’s most avid supporters, including the larger community.
My point is that whether or not the conflicting views on campus regarding the missions of BCCs proceed from philosophical differences, those of us who have worked with centers for a number of years deserve to be heard.
Fred L. Hord,
ABCC Executive Director/Founder
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