Hi all- I apologize for the late post. It took me longer than I expected to get through the book- but very glad to have done so.

Biondi’s book offered a welcomed insight into a particular chapter of the ongoing struggle for equity and justice within the context of an education system.

One of the aspects which I appreciated was the way in which the nuances in activism and mobilization of students were explored as part of a larger social and political context. Biondi not only told the story of the social action days and moments of visibility but also some of the behind the scenes collaborations, negotiations and conflicts within and between groups.  In addition, there is an exploration of how the community-based grassroots organizations and the arts and media intersected with the push for Black Studies in higher education. One also could get a sense of the ways various events and individuals were interconnected in the larger historical thread. 

In thinking of our current political climate I think there may be some nostalgia around the stories of students mobilizing to demand change- yet this account gives some insight into the day to day realities of this time period and many examples of the brutality with which the higher education system and government responded. I wondered if the way so many stories of state sanctioned murders, suspension of civil liberties, blatant hostility have been ignored or forgotten is a predictor of how future generations may remember our current social political climate- taking pieces here and there of the large narrative based on media coverage-or if the spread of social media will allow for a fuller and more accessible account of attempts at resistance and the ways power continues to be misused and abused. Has social media afforded us some protection?

In some of relatively brief moments when Black students and other students of color came together, I was intrigued regarding the rationales or dynamics which may have led to ultimate separations of “issues” or “causes”. I was not surprised to learn of how the strategy of divide and conquer was applied but I also got the sense that there were some fundamental positions or demands the Black student organizers sought which stood apart from other groups of color or vice versa. Was this reflective of an undeveloped analysis of internalized anti-black racism and ethnocentrism? There was some attention to the question of white people’s involvement in the movement but also in the building of Black studies that followed- which I believe is a debate which goes on today when schools react to racist incidents and look to implement trainings or level personnel changes. This perspective was in many ways a contrast with the recurrent theme around international solidarity built on anti war and anti colonial ideologies.  I really found this exploration of the interworks of faculty and students’ activist work fascinating and an often ignored topic- I think there is a tendency to homogenize the category of “student activists”  or think of participants of a movement as being harmonious and cohesive groups. It was particularly interesting to consider the way patriarchy and homophobia were either identified and challenged- or what seems to be more often the case- tolerated or ignored for the sake of elevating black (male) identity. In the coming together of liberal and progressive circles in response to a “common enemy” in our current administration, I wonder how much of this lack of acknowledging the importance of viewing the struggle for liberation as an intersectional endeavor continues to exist and get in the way of effective social action. 

The accounting of the ways universities and governments colluded in the use of state violence against students brought up for me the question of how do we measure success following the fact lives were lost in the process? So many young people of color, in particular Black students, were harmed in so many ways to force higher education to think and exist outside its box- and yet so many solutions continued to come from “boxed” thinking.  I am not minimizing the gains and opportunities which were created on the backs of the number of young people who literally put their bodies on the line. How can those of us who agree with the values of equity and justice reconcile our participation in the often watered down, marginalized, white washed versions the institutionalized “Black perspective” in higher education given those before us paid such a high price? While the acknowledgment of Black Studies as an actual field of knowledge, research and study opened the doors to further cracking the colonial education machine for other groups, have people of color and their white allies today compromised the particular the emphasis on Blackness which transcends white concepts and the honoring of close ties to the community which was a big part of the success and vision of this movement?  In many ways, the creation of Black Studies, reminds me of a metaphor I heard once: You can’t stand up straight in a crooked room. And yet, what does the next step in this historical thread of movements towards justice and freedom looks like for our generation as faculty and students? How does this history inform our understanding of the role of higher education and our consideration of the possibilities of what could be?