William E. Ferris and "Negro-Saxons"

Today I went to a philosophy talk by Dwayne Tunstall, an African-American philosopher, who told us about William E. Ferris. Primarily a journalist, Ferris was (says Tunstall) a "second-rate historian and sociologist," but he also had an interesting philosophy of history. In a nutshell, he thought Anglo-Saxons had great values and ideas, but were being too coercive in their means of spreading these values and ideas, and also failing to live up to them. He felt that African-Americans were better placed to spread these values and ideas, and also he expected that if white people saw that these "Negro-Saxons" shared their culture, they would be more accepting. Way too optimistic.

Later I ran into GP just outside the library, and I got to ask her my pressing Dante question, as she's an expert. It turns out she's living in Italy this year and is just in town for a few days, though they'll return in April.

Then this evening I went to the university symphony. They had an amazing soprano saxophone soloist, and they also did Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I had wondered whether I was familiar with any of it besides the first movement - turns out the fourth and final movement is also something I know well, but I probably wouldn't have guessed this was what it was. If I go see our professional symphony do the same piece in a month or two, I'm sure I'll get more out of it now.