Gates Follows the Brand Name

DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chair of the Afro-American Studies department, has just published a book entitled Colored People. An extremely favorable review of the book in the New York Times reminded me of another article in that newspaper in February.

According to the February article, Gates in Paris was "furious" because a French couple mistook him for a taxi driver even though he "was standing in the lobby of [his] chic Latin Quarter hotel, in [his] handmade suit, Burberry coat and Paul Stewart scarf...." Gates was furious apparently because "[t]hose guys just weren't seeing me."

"See?" To be sure, underneath the sartorially chic and smug exterior was a Ph.D. in English (from Cambridge University) who completely failed to read the sad irony of his own brand name-bantering remark. Apparently in the world according to Gates, legitimacy is to be had only by positioning oneself behind established labels: the Latin Quarter, Burberry, Paul Stewart, Porsche, Cambridge, now Harvard, the list goes on.

In this regard, it would be difficult to expect Gates' scholarship to do anything other than to follow the trendy academic labels (e.g. deconstruction). It does.

I haven't read or bought his Colored People, but its apparent aim is to celebrate his acquisition of new clothes (with a very private label of "Chair" from the renowned designed, Harvard) and make some money while he's at it. Perhaps Gates should read less Derrida and more Hans Christian Andersen, "The Emperor's New Clothes" in particular.

I am, as we say these days, a person of color. I remember that as a student, I spent money to buy a book edited by Professor Gates. If the Proceeds from that book went on to fund Gates' misguided sense of grandeur, I am, to say the least, very disappointed.

In that case, I urge each prospective buyer of Gates' new book not to part with his or her $22. Donald Sung '89