I heartily agree.

I'd take that one step further to say the professional and managerial classes of Black folk are similarly afflicted and that that cherry picked compartmentalization of Black intellectual and sweat equity has served as a primary neutralizing force and has ensured insipid assimilation and comparative servitude on other folks terms.

I remain sanguine about the pinch of necessity as either the mother of invention or the harbinger of some painful alternatives.

I had dinner a few months back with a local blackademic who stated rather forthrightly that his research and publication is too valuable to share and disclose in the blogosphere. Mind you, this wasn't a scientist or engineer and he's non-existent in the ranks of public intellectuals in his liberal arts sphere.

It took me a full 5 minutes to recover my composure after falling out of my chair laughing. Being that he's one of my “elders”, of course there's no way to recover from that sleight, but, I think there are lots more confused breath and britches practitioners out there along with the preacher/politician classes who're in for a VERY RUDE awakening in 2009.

My point is reinventing the wheel isn't necessary when you've never used the wheel to start with. Blacks in the academy are labor, not unlike pro athletes or pop recording artists and their relationships with team owners and media corporate execs, respectively. Scholars could organize and create infrastructures which they would control for capitalization, production, and distribution. The Internet can be of great value in that process, but the bulk of the work will have to be done offline with real human relationships.

The part that concerns me is the appearance Blackademia is conditioned to speak at people from ivory towers.

No.

When you think of black intellectuals who are you thinking of?

My assumption is the Black intellectual appear on TV as a pundit and plug their book at the end of the show.

Is that correct?

Interesting take on the impact of new media. Here's some more fuel for your cogent arguments: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/mass-me...

As for your insight into the boundary of old and new–that is the preparation of graduate students, here's a another dimension to consider:
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_mag...

Enjoy home!

1. Learning how to formulate good new wine

2. Acquiring the skills to put that new wine in appropriate and appealing new wineskins.

http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2008/12/observational-learning.html

I had a rollicking discussion with the good doctor about this yesterday morning. It's not rocket science after all….., but necessity has to pinch hard enough for folks to shake off their old methods and habits.

It's a common theme kicked around the Afrosphere. As access to conventional mass media for Black punditry is adversely impacted by the recession, new media vehicles a la Web 2.0 need to be developed. You've kinda, sorta implied the same in suggesting a new strategy is needed for Black academics.

I say Blacks in the academic and pundit classes don't have a business model. In fact, they can't seem to wrap their edjumacated heads around perfectly sound and presently existing business models that every academy has at its disposal. The reality is you're going to have to work a little harder and become more transparent and responsible than previously in order to make the dough-re-mi.

It's sad about News and Notes, but this is a complicated issue, and I was not in love with the direction the black presence in the media was going.