Any excuses for Quincy Troupe?

Making excuses for what we assume to be true about Quincy Troupe is like saying that the reason why so many of our ancestors got married twice—once while in ‘legal’ slavery and again after The North American Civil War—is unimportant. Sympathy for Quincy Troup for what we assume to be true about Quincy Troupe—especially Black female sympathy—is just another subtle but foundationally profound insult too many imperial women of color have for the “weak” colored men. This sentiment is based on deep seated Black-female “knowledge” of Black male inferiority. It appeared to me as a dead-pan matter of fact too many times from the faces of my “sisters”… It is why too many of our mothers raise our daughters but only “love” our sons. My father tells me that he can’t easily spot a Black man that has been raised only by his mother… but I digress…

According to two apparently white (or “black conservative”?) males, Dan Schneider and Robin Wilson, Quincy Troupe is a liar. This lie made him resign his post as Poet Laureate of California (c. 2003). The way Dan Schneider handles this affair is one of two reasons why this whole situation angers me. My swaggering confidence is sure that Dan Schneider relishes Quincy Troupe’s dishonesty. He would say nothing about Quincy Troupe until he does something wrong. This is more than just a racial impulse—it’s the American tradition of quietly exploiting “the good” and loudly talking shit about “the bad.”

My swaggering confidence assumes that Mr. Dan began a criminal investigation the very moment he met Quincy Troupe. I’m sure, he would begin the same investigation as soon as he would meet me. “Does Bryan Wilhite really hold a degree in physics from UCSB?” You see, Black comedians made famous the situation when the person of color walks into the convenience store and is immediately monitored for shoplifting. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. These criminal investigations can get deeper and more esoteric. And my astonishing discovery is that the investigator is disappointed when innocence is found. I cannot find the words (yet) to express the depth of my surprise at this behavior.

So when I read Dan Schneider talking about Quincy Troupe’s six-figure sinecure from UC San Diego and Robin Wilson talking about Quincy Troupe’s six-foot frame and “shoulder-length dreadlocks,” the American tradition of the mutilation of the Black body after the ritual lynching is happening symbolically. Their desire to examine the corpse is justified because it is so “evil”—right? We have a man who has held a lie for 26 years. What is this thing? Shall we hang this animal from a tree like the Viking days of old?

My respect goes out to Dan Schneider for bringing some real historical context into this situation:

Mr. Troupe is hardly the first professor or college administrator to be caught fabricating his résumé.

Pat J. Palmer worked for the University of Iowa for 11 years as a research scientist before it was discovered last summer that she had never earned any of the four degrees she claimed on her CV—not the doctorate from Iowa itself, nor two master’s degrees, nor a B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa. Following that finding, she was charged with falsifying public documents, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,500 fine. (Ms. Palmer could not be reached for comment.) In the wake of the Palmer case, the university has begun checking the academic credentials of all faculty and staff members before they are hired.

Lana Nguyen, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Regina, in Saskatchewan, was found guilty of fraud and forgery in 2001 after the university charged her with listing her ex-husband’s academic degrees and publications as her own in order to get hired and obtain research grants.

And the Rev. Eugene R. Kole announced his resignation as president of Quincy University, in Illinois, last fall after the Board of Trustees discovered he had claimed two master’s degrees he’d never earned. (Father Kole could not be reached for comment.)

My primary education is from a school older than any Western university—so there are no excuses here for Quincy Troupe. Quincy Troupe is made for Western academia. Almost every Western history teacher will tell lies to unsuspecting children for far more than 26 years—the only difference is that the laws of flesh men are ‘fixed’ to make their lying legitimate.

What goes deeper is what is beyond Quincy Troupe’s victim status. Of the many big surprises in my life the biggest of them all is that a Quincy Troupe character can react to authentic Black people in a manner far worse than the most jealous self-described “white man.” Certainly there exists a Black poet as talented as Quincy Troupe that is a graduate of Grambling College in the same age group as Quincy Troupe but we have not heard of him because he is not as charming and hustling as Quincy Troupe. I dare to say that the information about such a person would be suppressed by a Quincy Troupe lying character. In order to make this unknown, authentic Black person known, Quincy Troupe would have to threaten his sole ego/financial existence. It would be like committing suicide like some crazy Black samurai. My experience tells me that such colored folks are into self preservation at all costs. To these people there is no other life but the ego-illusion of life. This is the second reason why this whole affair angers me.

Anger over: do read “Quincy Troupe: The Wait” here at kintespace.com.

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