Objectivity, and the First Day of Class
In a powerful column on the African American Intellectual History Society’s blog last week, Brandon R. Byrd drew attention to the racial baggage carried by the idea of objectivity within the historical profession. Historically, objectivity has, Byrd argues, been the province of whiteness. Black claims to truth-telling have always been judged suspect by whites, a past (and present) that renders professional claims to objectivity deeply problematic. In the present moment in which we teach, we need anything but objectivity, Byrd…