BOOKS
BOOKS Visions of a New Movement Beyond Black and While: Transforming African-American Politics by Manning Marable Verso Press. 236 pages. $24.95. by Fred McKissack When I was asked to write a...
...I had to, on occaFred McKissack is the co-editor of the Progressive Media Project...
...This tipport for Thomas underscores the prob-?ms with racial-identity politics and inte-rationism...
...Marable's major point is that Reed should be fighting rightwingers instead of members of the black intelligentsia...
...Reed may be the angriest brother on the left, but he has a very sensitive radar for political cant...
...They don't seem to mind the paternalistic attitude that says, "You colored people can't run our companies, but we'll support the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund...
...In the 1960s, when young African Americans were asked the question 'What o you want'?' we frequently replied: 'A lack face in a high place.' " That senli-lent has helped a number of useless black "oliticians to maintain office...
...My first full-time job in journalism was with the St...
...and Political Changes...
...But the expectations of toda\\ \outh don't jibe with that political groo\e...
...For those who like to be privy to in-house squabbles...
...The thrust of his argument is to point ut the limits of the first two, and the romise of the last...
...Marable writes...
...I now wish I had paid more attention...
...Socielv...
...Black nationalism and racial identity politics strike a popular chord with the voung...
...Juan Williams...
...In municipal politics, liberal integra-aonism's 'symbolic representation' means hat if the number of African Americans -ppointed to the police department increases, or if a black professional becomes police commissioner, working-class black neighborhoods will eventually become safer, or police brutality will gradual...
...The main thesis of the book is thai 'race' as it has been understood within American society is being rapidly redefined, along with the basic structure of the economy, with profound political consequences for all segments and classes," Marable writes in the preface...
...All I can remember about his columns was that I didn't particularly pay attention...
...Marable doesn't offer any great new insight into what we could do to attain his vision of a multiracial and truly democratic movement...
...be reduced...
...This status quo finds nothing wrong with accepting the handouts of the Democratic Partv and liberal corporate capitalism...
...sion, type his entire commentary into the computer, and Marable likes to write long...
...Marable argues...
...Marable offers critical analysis on several subjects and events, including Clarence Thomas's nomination to the Supreme Court and the Los Angeles riots...
...The status-quo politics of the older generation are based primarily on the fact that while racism still exists, their lives are considerably better than they used to be...
...It was also /ie impetus behind the movement by sev-ral African-American leaders, as well as few civil-rights organizations, to support ,-he nomination of Clarence Thomas...
...They can live in the suburbs, send their kids to private school, and eat at any lunch counter they want...
...However, thev are not embracing principled militanc\ with a socialist bent, either...
...He argues tirelessly not just for better days for black America, but for Americans in general...
...In the process, he discusses the dilemma f generational expectations...
...Louis...
...1995, Village Voice article...
...In the case of black intellectuals, they write long essays about each other...
...by Fred McKissack When I was asked to write a review of Manning Marable's latest book, I had to chuckle...
...To tell the truth, I hated Marable back then, in the fall of 1992...
...It was not the "Def Comedy Jam," but Reed's piece got real ugly, real fast...
...At this moment, we need clarity and courage, above all, not chumminess...
...Marable's critique of Adolph Reed's scathing April 11...
...Stephen Carter, Mava Angelou, and the leadership of the N A A CP...
...Apparently, even the most intellectual of black folk play the dozen...
...Louis American, a venerable paper that covered the African-American community in St...
...Real long...
...No, Marable had to go into great detail, several pages front and back, about why he'd taken a stance on one subject or another...
...Greta, the editorial assistant, would say when she saw the letter in the mail...
...By dismantling the narrow politics of racial identitv and selective self-interest, by going beyond "black" and "white...
...Marable's pen cuts deep at Reed...
...Of all the black intellectuals that the media use as "go-to" pundits, Marable is probably one of the least utilized but most valuable...
...According to Marable...
...Beyond Black and White is a collection of Marable's essays written between 1991 and 1995...
...Yes, his work does tend to become ponderous and academic, full of history and facts, but you'd be hard-pressed to fault his analysis or the sincerity of his writing...
...At a time when we need to construct a new left-of-center paradigm as an alternative to mass conservatism, we need to engage in a thoughtful civil dialogue among ourselves—not a public mugging of black intellectuals who share democratic, progressive values...
...Those expec-itions have led to the gulf that separates lose who came of age during the civil-,ghts era from their disenchanted children...
...Many of today's black middle-class scholars are not organically connected to the problems and struggles of the African-American community," Marable acknowledges...
...That he spares no one is part of what makes him worth reading...
...larable analyzes three strains within the lack intelligentsia: integrationism...
...Who's going to do Manning...
...Marable argues, rather poignantly, that their endorsement of Thomas was the "central tragedy" of the whole affair, especially for the young...
...Marable writes...
...nation-lism, and what he calls translormation-m...
...Reed blasted the crop of public intellectuals as being opportunists with no constituency...
...It can be heard in the lyrics of Public Enemy, Brand Nubian, and Sister Soul-jah, and it can be seen in the support for the neo-fascist politics of Louis Farrakhan...
...Poor Greta, it usually fell on her shoulders to have to do Manning...
...No 700-word op-ed knock-off for him...
...ducat ion...
...If the black leadership wants to gain back the youth it has unwittingly turned away, it must reach out to other oppressed groups and transcend racial chauvinism...
...He writes about the need to make alliances with Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, working people, gays and lesbians-all who are shut out or run down...
...He accuses him of being irresponsible for attacking Henry Louis Gates, Cornel West, bell hooks, and Michael Eric Dyson, and he says the situation is reminiscent of watching black leaders in his youth attack each other out of jealousy "and a desire for influence with the white elite...
...But he has articulated the goal well, a goal the black leadership of today has yet to embrace, or in some cases re-embrace...
...Marable traces the roots of black nationalism, but shows the follv of the "mythical reconstruction" of Afrocentrism especially in today's America, which is increasingly diverse, with a large Latino and Asian-American population...
...However, Reed should also recognize that West, Gates, and company should not be the primary objects of his political scorn and contempt...
...In the es-ivs of the book's second part, entitled African-American Leadership...
...It is also one of the 280 newspapers around the country that carry Manning Marable's social and political commentary, "Along the Color Line...
...The only thing Reed didn't do was talk about somebody's momma...
...including myself, find themselves either at odds with, or at least ambivalent toward, the established black elite...
...He wrote "Thanks a Million " in the December issue of The Progressive...
...But this book is also about the crisis of Trican-Anierican leadership since the Todern civil-rights movement...
...we may construct new values, new institutions, and new visions of an America beyond traditional racial categories and racial oppression...
...Reed went too far with "a series of mean-spirited criticisms," Marable writes, quoting with disfavor Reed's dismissal of bell hooks and Michael Eric Dyson as "hustlers, blending bombast, cliches, psychobabble, and lame guilt-tripping in service to the 'pay-me' principle...
...The children of Booker T. Washington," Reed called them, noting that they were disconnected from the black masses and spouting a brand of self-help politics that was particularly ill-suited to the crisis at hand...
...The Current Crisis of the Black Intellectual," is chock-full of slaps...
...This spat aside, Beyond Black and White is an important contribution to the crucial discussion of the future of black politics—and the future of progressive politics—in America...
...Any brother on the Court would be a help, not a hindrance, to African Americans, at least that was what was being argued by Thomas's supporters, who included William Raspberry...
...In other words, they're all Uncle Toms...
...I was too busy cursing him because I had my own stories to write, and I didn't have a lot of time to waste...
...This could get you into a fight, even cut in some neighborhoods...
...the leadership must begin to critique the vast structure of power and privilege that characterizes the political economy of post-industrial capitalist America...
...The vast majority of African Americans under the age of ihirly-live...
Vol. 60 • February 1996 • No. 2
