Against the Tide joshua Auerbach a Black Student Alliance at Yale BSAY) debate held during the C larence Thomas confirmation hearings, one law student excoriated the judge as a "traitor to his race" for his unabashedly co n servative stance on issues of civil rights and affirmative action and for his marriage to a white woman. Thomas, who has generally lived up to his advance billing as a true movement conservative, has left many in the black community with the bitter taste of betrayal in their mouths. His high visibility has focused attention on the precarious position of black intellectuals who dissent from the social and political views of the black community's established leadership. For the minority of black students at Yale who agree in part with Thomas' approach, and even for those who simply supported his nomination so that the black community would have a voice on the Supreme Cou r ~ the confirmation hearings caused a certain amount of personal discomfort. "The Thomas hearings clarified rifts that already existed in the black community," said Richard Forde (PC '93). These rifts, however, do not run along a simplistic ideological divide between "conse r vatives" and "liberals." Rather, they represent a series of extremely blurry lines that vaguely differentiate positions on several issues. While the number of black Yalies who identify themselves as "conservative" is extraordinarily small (none of the students interviewed for chis article, for example, consider themselves conservative), many who see themselves as moderate or even liberal-leaning nonetheless find themselves on the "wrong" side of one of these blurry lines. These students claim that the attitude ofYale's black community coward those whose views d iverge from the majority can often be inhospitable and occasionally exclusionary. The pressure to conform, according co some, effectively stifles a great deal of debate. "The dissenting black intellectual can expect ostracism; and the predictable effect of the ostracism is to discourage freedom of thought," Law professor Stephen Carter wrote in his book Rqkctions ofan Affirmativ~ Action Ai Baby. Career argues that in recent years affirmative action has become a sort oflicmus test to determine one's loyalty to the race. "The single proposition on which dissent seems to be 26 THE NEw joURNAL l',l'l tc.lc·l.llc·cll' tile l.lll.t\jllciclclh<. ,j, 'li.ti>lllt\ \1c IIIII<' dll,·l\,,tll.ll, Ill!<> '!lll'il<>il 1\t, . 1 "- 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 ~L,,,,~ . 'k 1 I 1~ · 1 r r~ ' , ·1 \ ... · 1 \ c>f c'.l• 11'<1\c· ' ' ,1,·111' Ill \lllllc!111:: lc> ( !.lll<>lt.t\c 'f 1 · t' f ', ' .lllcl 1>\.tck J,,J:IIlf I' I \\ ILII '')"- l.t!l\ 111 '":',I ' ' "'--'1'·11,11\ 1,!,11\. II i··'"' lllhL l:'l.lltll.ll,. '''I'll!~\.- tll"l''·'::rt·l-tlJ, ~,.-\j I I,. I '1.1' " lttl!l1 ,,;fh-! li1, ')' Jltlllll,...,~,.-,1,Jtltl 1111~~· ""-::-111• J)('. '.11<\ ; '. I" llltlf" !ltlllll'~> !Hill'- l1 i.l( 1"-i, l~l- l ' 1111 Ill II II II \ i•t;: l"ll<. r " \ •• ~ 1 .. t l1 .. ;J,, \(I. tll.J'. 1 1 lt td 1.' !>,· t!Jo..' ltlll >..,,,Ill j-,lll/\\<1\ t r 1 ! .. ·;-:. r·• 1 r ·ij'j'ltl!'ll.ll\ ~,. ~Jtl~._-, ' I I " I d ,j I.. ~ l .1 t 1 tq~, It 1 i'll!ll.l rill. !/1.111 .I \fltt.L·tll-.. \\ f111 Ill I 1.. J,,,., l l l i l ' t ' ! , · I 11! h l'll rile "l l, r.il k h\.1c community's organized activities do not always feel welcome when they do attend com munity events. "There is a very suspicious attitude toward those who don't take part in community activities," Kurzweil said. A whole vocabulary of epithets-Uncle Tom, incognegro, oreo--exisrs to refer co blacks who eith dissent politically or who socialize primarily outside the black community. "I have friends who have been hurt by that and as a result don't associate with the black community," Forde said. Forde himself remembers a time when a black friend cold him that a third student in the black community, someone that Forde did nor know, expressed surprise that he and Forde were close. ''I'm surprised Richard speaks co you," the third student said. "The word is chat he doesn't associate with the black community." A phrase like "doesn't associate with the black community," Forde said, is often a euphemism for "Uncle Tom." BSAY co-moderator David Bradley (TO '94) acknowledged char ostracism like this occurs at Yale, but claimed chat black students have become increasingly aware of the damage that these epithets can cause. "The black community is becoming sensitive to this," he said. "We are crying co become more inclusive." Orlando Bishop (PC '94), writing in Say It Loud, the BSAY newsletter, proposed a move co a more tolerant black community. "What is solifEBRUARY 5• 1993