Although the systematic study of black people is much needed and long overdue, black studies programs as they exist are faced with problems and pressures concerning the way they have been created. Responding to black students demand for such programs, in some cases colleges have acted in haste and neither have recruited well-trained, intellectually accomplished scholars in black studies, nor students who have the command of language or of systematic analysis necessary to meet exacting standards. The particular direction these programs have taken can be understood against the background of the educational situation of black students and of the push for increased black enrollments, creating many cases of mismatchment of students with institutions. That the future of special black studies programs and departments looks grim is a viewpoint that is a viewpoint that is not shared by the second contributor to this pamphlet. Here, black studies are defended, for they represent the most likely institutional structure under which courses of and about blacks are best organized and taught. The problems of black studies can be solved through proper organization and scientific conceptualizations. Where universities are able to organize and staff good black studies programs, they should do so. (Author/AM)