The Bunche Chair Lecture Series kicked off Thursday night with
democracy and human rights advocate Randall Robinson, in
celebration of the newly endowed Bunche Chair in International
Studies and Black History Month.
Robinson spoke about Ralph Bunche’s accomplishments, his
academic excellence and achievements, and the need for Americans to
follow his works.
The Bunche Lecture Series is funded from the interest of the
Bunche chair’s endowment. The future chair will become a
member of the political science department but will be housed in
the Bunche Center for African American Studies.
This is the only endowed chair on campus that is named after a
black individual, according to Darnell Hunt, director of the Bunche
Center.
Some of Bunche’s accomplishments cited by Robinson include
his armistice negotiation in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949, his
role in drafting the United Nations Charter, his mentorship to
Eleanor Roosevelt, and his academic scholarship. Bunche Hall on
campus is named after him.
Vice Chancellor of Graduate Studies Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, in
her opening remarks, emphasized the need for people to follow
Bunche’s work at a time when she said social justice is at
its weakest.
The Bunche endowment was made possible by two decades of
grassroots fundraising efforts in the black community that gathered
$500,000 from 230 individual donors.
Robinson has written several books about the state of blacks,
and is the founder and president of TransAfrica, which promotes
“constructive and enlightened” U.S. policy towards
Africa and the Caribbean.
In the 1980s, Robinson and TransAfrica pushed for Congress to
condemn South African apartheid, and were involved in
anti-apartheid boycotts and freeing Nelson Mandela. In 1994,
Robinson undertook a 28-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.
policy of repatriating Haitians who escaped from the junta. The
U.S. then changed its policy in favor of Robinson’s
position.
In 2001 he left the U.S., a country on which he had “given
up,” and has since settled in St. Kitts.
Robinson was selected by the committee for his commitment to
human and civil rights, a modern-day response to Bunche’s
work.
Robinson spoke about the importance of education in raising
awareness about the world and said democracy is only healthy with
educated people.
Robinson also emphasized that American culture is a
“present tense culture” that cares not about the past.
He also said the U.S. suffered from an “infection of
triumphanism” and is oblivious about the rest of the
world.
“We as a nationality have cut ourselves off from the rest
of the world. We think we are greater than everybody else,”
Robinson said.
The U.S. lacks respect for other people and nations and thinks
it can impose its will onto them, he said.
“A lot of work needs to be done in terms of social justice
and racial justice in our own country. Randall Robinson conveyed
the message in a way that illustrated what is wrong with the
picture America has become,” Hunt said.