A few weeks ago the History Department at PSU kindly hosted a reading at which I shared some thoughts about and from my recently published African, American: From Tarzan to Dreams from My Father--Africa in the U.S. Imagination. It was my seventh book and, like all the other readings I have given, it was lightly attended. And all signs point to the conclusion that this book, like the others, will be lightly read. As with my other books, a few people have told me that they have profited from reading it and found it useful. But it is very hard to avoid the conclusion that I have spent a very large fraction of the past thirty years working on books that have had a substantial impact on just a handful of people.
At the reading, however, I also invited immigrants from Africa whom I work with at Portland State or Reynolds High School to talk about their lives. Over the past several years I have found myself spending more and more time with students, from speaking to classes as part of my work with the Yo Ghana! letter exchanges to sitting with particular students in my office or at their schools to encourage them, to assure them that they have powerful stories worth sharing. Watching them share those stories was the best part of the evening.
Academics are trained and socialized to believe that we possess or will possess special insights that will change the world. It would be more accurate to say that we are in a position to nurture and encourage thousands of students who can and might well change the world.
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