I do hope that David Robertson’s comment that “the world is essentially ‘un-sort-out-able’ by humans” (winter 2002, page 22) is either a misquote or a quote taken out of context. Because if David Robertson is correct, then all science might as well cease. In fact, of course, Darwin’s evolution by natural selection, Einstein’s e=mc2, Copernicus’ heliocentric theory and much else in science have contributed enormously to sorting out the world.

Sandy Harcourt
Professor of Anthropology
UC Davis

Greg Van Nest ’96

Donya Saied ’04
Concord

FREE SPEECH

I am a 1995 graduate of UC Davis and am disappointed and ashamed to see the closed-minded, “politically correct” attitude that has taken over the university. The First Amendment was written to protect not the speech we like, not the speech we agree with, but to protect the very words we find most distasteful, most bothersome. Those words that disturb and incite debate. Those words that force us to think, not just the words that make us feel good. It is in the marketplace of ideas that good will be separated from bad, not on the floor of the censoring room. Shame on a public university for apologizing for running a disturbing advertisement (see summer 2001 magazine, page 6), shame on the students for refusing to think outside of the familiar, and shame on all of us for allowing this ridiculous and demeaning censorship to continue!

Maggie A. Fields Harmon ’95

MORE ON AFROCENTRISM

I was both amused and puzzled by Professor Asante’s letter about my opinion piece. If Asante had read my book, he would know that I have read his books. I disagree with everything he has written. Asante’s conception of history is a strange amalgam of what Nietzsche once defined as monumental and antiquarian history. Afrocentrism fits the Nietzschean definition of monumental history because it “deceives by analogies: with seductive similarities it inspires the courageous to foolhardiness and the inspired to fanaticism.” Operating as antiquarian history, Afrocentrism “possesses an extremely restricted field of vision; most of what exists it does not perceive at all, and the little it does see it sees much too close up and accords everything it sees equal importance.” What Nietzsche captures here is the presentist and ahistorical nature of what passes today for alternative histories. Whether they be the fantasy of Neo-Confederatism or the myth of Aztlan, these new histories are deeply rooted in wishful thinking about the past. Like Afrocentrism, they serve a therapeutic function for the people who subscribe to their bizarre readings and imaginings of the past.

Asante understands this when he refers to Afrocentrism as a way for black people to recuperate “African agency and centeredness.” This phrase refers to a loss of self esteem. To describe a people as suffering from “menticide” which Asante defines as “suicide of the mind” is to argue that black Americans are afflicted with a form of cognitive dissonance. This line of argument is risible. Racial problems in the United States today, as they were in the past century, are structural, and no amount of thinking about Cleopatra and Ramses II—in brief, a past that never was—will alter this reality. What black people need is a useable present, not an ersatz past. I rest my case.

Clarence E. Walker
Professor of History, UC Davis

A FINE BLEND

As both wine lover and wine professional, I much enjoyed your informative article about the mutual contributions of Robert Mondavi and UC Davis to the betterment of wine quality. However, it must be noted that, contrary to Mr. Darrell Corti’s comment (who presumably was misquoted) and contrary to the note in your California Wine Time Line, UC Davis did not “invent” malolactic fermentation. No doubt, UC Davis researchers have contributed much to understanding, controlling and even inducing this naturally occurring chemical process, but [UC Davis] assuredly did not invent it, any more than it invented the wondrous conversion of sweet grape juice to wine.

Jim Fathy ’70
W. Newton, Ma.

We didn’t misquote Darrell Corti, but you’re right that “invent” wasn’t quite the right word. Before work done at UC Davis, malolactic fermentation was a mysterious, haphazard process that made wines unpalatable and fizzy and was disastrous when it occurred after bottling. Work done by Ralph Kunkee led to a better understanding and control of the process.

CORRECTIONS

In our winter issue in the time line accompanying our story “A Fine Blend” (page 21), we misidentified Albert Julius Winkler as Henry Winkler. Says Winkler’s grandson Milt Plocher ’72: “We really think that he was a cool dude but not the same as the Fonz.”

In our Cal Aggie Alumni Association “2001 Year in Review” (page 36), the woman we identified in a photo of the Pancake Breakfast as Kathryn Keyes’ sister is really her mother. “My mom is so thrilled to be labeled my sister,” writes Keyes. “She’s really rubbing it in.”

In “Reaping the Rewards” (page 45), our list of benefactors of the L.M. McOmie Research Fund included the Department of Animal Husbandry (as listed in the trust agreement); that department is now the Department of Animal Science.