Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals

by Jacques Berlinerblau

One of the most controversial books to come out of the academy in the last fifteen years is Martin Bernal's Black Athena. It has been a true cause celebre. Afrocentrists have both praised the book and claimed that Bernal stole from the work of black scholars to create his study of the Afroasiastic roots of classical civilization. Classicists feel passionately about what they perceive as an attack from an outsider on the origins not only of ancient Greece but of their own discipline. It seems that everyone has something to say about the book; the question is how many really understand it. In Heresy in the University, Jacques Berlinerblau provides an exegesis of the contents of Black Athena, making it accessible to a wider audience. As he clarifies and restates Bernal's opus, Berlinerblau identifies Bernal's flaws in reasoning and gaps in evidence. He cuts to the heart of Bernal's prose, singling out the key points of Bernal's argument, explaining and arranging them in a cogent manner. Berlinerblau addresses the critics' really important objections, including his own, and links each of them to the appropriate substantive argument in Black Athena. He goes beyond simple summary and exposition to present the underlying --stated and unstated--agendas of Bernal and his critics. Ultimately, he exposes both sides and asks what the flawed reasoning from all concerned reveals about the stakes in this key academic dispute and what that, in turn, says about the modern academy. Jacques Berlinerblau is an assistant professor and director of Judaic studies at Hofstra University.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

JACQUES BERLINERBLAU, is a professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University. He possesses separate doctorates in ancient languages and literatures and theoretical sociology. He has published 10 books. Berlinerblau toggles between “pure” academic writing and more public-facing endeavors. In terms of the latter, he has written for, appeared on, or had his work discussed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Salon, The Guardian, The New Republic, The Nation, NPR, Tablet, Commentary, The Forward, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Canadian Broadcast Network, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Al-Jazeera, PBS, MSNBC, CBS, CBC, TF1, AFP, and CNN.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN OVERVIEW OF MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT BERNAL’S BOOK, AND ISSUES RAISED

Jacques Berlinerblau (b. 1966) is professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University; he previously taught Judaic studies at Hofstra University.

He wrote in the ‘Acknowledgments’ of this 1999 book, “I began this project in the summer of 1995, confidently and erroneously expecting that it would be completed within eighteen months. Three years later, I recognize how senselessly sanguine that estimate actually was; at least a decade would be required to explore the ‘Black Athena’ controversy thoroughly… Critique aimed at everyone and in all directions is the ethic which animates the present work.” (Pg. xi)

He asks in the Introduction, “What is it about ‘Black Athena’ that has kindled the passions of so many scholars in so many different disciplines? And, why did this particular densely worded, minutiae-laden academic text excite interest outside of the university?… Speaking very broadly, ‘Black Athena’ advances two interrelated theories… Martin Bernal’s historical argument… claims that the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians exerted massive cultural influence upon inchoate Greek civilization… The ancient Greeks themselves, demonstrates Bernal, freely acknowledged their enormous respect, intellectual debts, and even ties of kinship to the older, more sophisticated civilizations of the East… the sociology of knowledge provides the basis for a second theoretical initiative. [Bernal] contends that the belief in Egyptian and Phoenician influence on ancient Greece had been a commonplace from Classical antiquity until the 19th century C.E. … Modern European scholars… became the first … chroniclers of history to cast doubts upon the relatively banal notion of… ‘Light from the East.’ … Occidental chauvinism figures prominently in Bernal’s sociological explanation… [but] racism and anti-Semitism are but two variables in a much more detailed, more thought-provoking, and less marketable hypothesis.” (Pg. 3-4)

He notes that “The editors [Mary Lefkowitz, et al.] of ‘Black Athena Revisited’ did an admirable job of collecting mainstream---and thus highly critical---evaluations of Bernal’s text, yet the contributors made little effort to discuss opinions emanating from the … radical tier… I do recognize that Lefkowitz and her colleagues advanced some insightful, penetrating, and occasionally devastating criticisms of ‘Black Athena.’ … Bernal has made many mistakes. Some of these he has frankly acknowledged---a courtesy which many of his critics seem unwilling to recognize or emulate.” (Pg. 9)

He acknowledges, “Bernal wishes to show that as far as [Herodotus] was concerned, Phoenician and Egyptian culture had profoundly influenced the development of ancient Greece… [He] reports that the alphabet was transmitted to the Greeks by the Phoenicians: ‘an art till then, I think, unknown to the Greeks.’ … Herodotus states that their descendants, who he claims to have seen with his own eyes, have ‘black skins’ and are ‘woolly-haired.’ The inference which Bernal drew from this… was that these Egyptian soldiers, and hence their leaders, were ‘black.’” (Pg. 29)

He argues, “I would like to challenge Bernal’s… suggestion that something called the ‘Ancient Model’ actually existed in the periods discussed above. What Bernal labels a ‘model’ was… a series of vague, unquestioned assumptions sprinkled throughout the writings of a few of the most eminent minds of the Classical and Hellenistic periods.” (Pg. 33)

He notes, “Bernal does not seem to apply that notion of competitive plausibility with any consistency… the most glaring drawback in his exposition of competitive plausibility is… [he] has again neglected to articulate a program for the implementation of his ideas. How exactly do we distinguish plausible theories from implausible ones?” (Pg. 73)

He reports “the problems [Bernal] had in getting his manuscript published. ‘Thus, as in Britain ‘Black Athena’ did not pass through the academic processes normally required in the USA. It was only because of my [Bernal's] peculiarly good connections with scholars in other disciplines that I was able to bypass them. It was not that the system had failed to filter out heresy.’” (Pg. 117)

He also notes that “As for the partisan nature of ‘Black Athena,’ Bernal accepts blame here as well… his work has an explicit political purpose: ‘to lessen European cultural arrogance.’… Bernal agrees with his detractors: his work is politically motivated.” (Pg. 127)

He reports that in a February 1992 issue of the ‘New Republic’… Bernal demurred: ‘I am not an Afrocentrist. I have never been an Afrocentrist. I do not believe that all good things come from any one continent.” (Pg. 134)

He points out, “Bernal’s brief discussion of [Cheikh Anta] Diop (three sentences) and [W.E.B.] Du Bois (a passing reference) and his complete disregard of 19th and 20th century vindicationists stands as one of ‘Black Athena’s most disturbing shortcomings… Bernal reports that he became aware of these sources only after eight years of working on his manuscript… in the name of lessening European arrogance, the author might have devoted more effort … to studying the opinions of thinkers who were neither European nor white. Had he done so, he would have identified a formidable coalition of authentic intellectual precursors. Bernal has frankly acknowledged his error… he concedes that this was a ‘serious omission.’” (Pg, 141)

He quotes Bernal’s statement, “the further south, or up the Nile, one goes, the blacker and more Negroid the population becomes…. I believe that Egyptian civilization was FUNDAMENTALLY AFRICAN… [and that] many of the most powerful Egyptian dynasties … were made up of pharaohs whom one can usefully call black." ... "The phrase ‘pharaohs whom one can usefully call black’ is a locution that is susceptible to a variety of misinterpretations.” (Pg. 149)

He observes that “The basic source of the disagreement between Bernal and [Frank] Snowden is… the definitions of ‘black’ which they use are incommensuratable. Snowden equates the term ‘black’ or ‘Negro’ exclusively with a particular type of skin pigmentation and hair. Bernal, conversely, had the infamous ‘one drop’ rule in mind.” (Pg. 152)

He also notes that Bernal later conceded, “I am now convinced that the title of my work should have been ‘African Athena.’ … My regret is based on the fact that ‘black’ is… misunderstood to represent purely West African physical types.’” (Pg. 156)

This book will be of keen interest to those studying Bernal’s books, and related topics.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great treatise on the responsibilities of American intellectuals in an environment that promotes feel-good revisionism over scholarship.