July 11, 2007

Archives 1997
From the 1997 Archives of
Black Issues In Higher Education

Beyond Black & White: Transforming African American Politics. - book reviews

by Melvin C. Terrell

In the twenty-nine years since the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which marked the end of the Civil Rights Movement and the ascendancy of conservatism as the dominant force in national politics, many scholars and intellectuals have struggled mightily to explain "what has happened" to Black people. As the millennium approaches, academia, and we as a society, have been confronted with the issue of racism and have sought to re-examine those public policies which have directly impacted the quality of the Black American experience.

What works and what doesn't work in this context largely depends on whose ideology or social/political perspective is applied. The conservatives feel that affirmative action, welfare and "big government" don't work. But the liberals argue that welfare prevents children from starving, affirmative action provides opportunity and the government is just as large as is necessary to finance all the claims for federal services and subsidies. Even among the Black intelligentsia, there are ideological schisms and conflict in the establishment of a national agenda for African Americans.

In his new book, Beyond Black and White: Transforming African American Politics, Dr. Manning Marable provides only a glimpse into the struggle for "the souls of black folk." Marable, in the first sentence of the preface, cautions the reader that the book is only a collection of political and social essays written between 1991-95. This may account for two major flaws in the book: one, that some of the political analysis is overcome by events; and two, the serious lack of any thematic cohesion in the overall work.

The book is divided into three broad categories: Politics of Race and Class; African American Leadership; and Beyond Black and White, a term which the author never fully explains. As the reader moves from one essay to another, one gets the sense of a lack of a compelling or unifying theme that would tie the various chapters together into a single vision of the Black experience. What the book does provide is more like a snap shot of various aspects of race, history and politics, along with some intellectual musings on Black leadership in the Post-Civil Rights era.

Marable begins with a number of sociopolitical observations of the ramifications of Reaganism and of the conservative realignment which occurred in the 1980s. The most interesting of these is Marable's assertion that Reaganism has provided cover for reactionary and fascist elements within our society.

"Reaganism has permitted and encourage[s] the involvement of blatantly racist and anti-Semitic forces in the electoral arena...the ideological 'glue' in the appeals of these formations to low to middle-income whites is racism and...the inevitable social by-product of the ultra-right's mass political mobilization is terrorism and increases violence."

The unleashing of these forces have given rise to increased racial hostility, "angry white men," retrenchment on affirmative action, journalist Pat Buchanan's "cultural wars," attacks on all immigrant policies, the militia movement, and bombings or the threat of bombing of federal property.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Marable laments the end of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. He asserts that the movement failed not because it moved far to the left, but because it didn't move far enough. He has singled out Ron Brown as the central player in getting Jackson to endorse President Clinton and remain in the ranks of the Democratic Party.

"Jackson's refusal to launch an independent (left social-democratic) group which could contest elections with both parties created the political space which permitted the [Democratic Leadership Council] and Clinton to seize the offensive."

Brown was fast-tracked to chair the i Democratic Party and served as Secretary of Commerce before his death, while Jackson subsequently moved back to Chicago and increasingly appears to be out of the loop regarding national politics. Additionally, it should not be lost on any political observer that Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan also moved swiftly into the void left by Jackson.

In the world according to Marable, Black conservatives are dismissed out of hand as neo-accommodationists, the direct descendants of Booker T. Washington. In this context, Marable warns against "symbolic presentation." One of the lessons learned from the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill controversy is the development of new concepts of racial identification. "So the argument that...the professional successes of individuals within the African American elite benefit the entire community is no longer valid."

Marable overuses the imperative as a rhetorical device for driving his conclusions home. For example: "We must begin the process of redefining Blackness..."; "The Black freedom movement must revive itself..."; "...Black activist and the American left must be willing to go beyond the ideological limitation of liberal integrationism." This book is filled with these "must" statements which, although they may sound profound, fail to provide a detailed process of implementation. :

The author presents a Black intelligentsia which is divided into three ideological camps. There are: the inclusionists, which Marable dismisses as having bankrupt notions of integration, theoretical limitations and programmatic contradictions; the nationalists, which he similarly waves off as promoting a social agenda that is a quarter of a century out of date; and the transformationists, who advocate a "radical multicultural democracy" and who, it seems to Marable, promote the true and correct social theory.

Transformation is an eclectic mixture of social theories including: militancy, socialism trade-unionism, feminism, internationalism - to name a few. It is "an approach toward politics and social dialogue which is pluralistic, multicultural and non-exclusionary," according to Marable, who concludes, "In short, we must go beyond Black and white, seeking power in a world which is increasingly characterized by broad diversity in ethnic and social groupings."

It is difficult to see how transformation as described by the author can succeed where other social theories and political actions have failed. Even Marable states that the collapse of "world socialism" and the ascendancy of conservatism in Europe and the United States have caused, to a great extent, a retreat from the transformationist perspective.

Beyond Black and White hardly lives up to its billing as a global vision of a new social agenda. Rather, it presents a narrow and somewhat leftist view of race and politics offering another opinion to the bonfire of theoretical musings.

Grants & Awards

American University's College of Law has been awarded $250,000 from the Ford Foundation, $334,299 from the International Center for Women's Research, and $10,000 from the Inter-American Development Bank to equip Latin American Law professors and women's advocates with teaching tools and materials needed to integrate a gender and human rights perspective into Latin America's legal education system.

Florida Memorial College has been awarded a $47,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education for professor Dr. Telahun Desalegne to conduct a two-year pre-college Mathematics Enrichment Summer Project (MESP). The program is designed to provide minority and physically disabled students with a firm foundation in mathematical concepts while building their confidence to succeed in math oriented courses.

Morris Brown College has been awarded the following: $100,000 from The Coca-Cola Foundation to endow the Coca-Cola Presidential Scholars Program; $100,000 from General Motors to support the Morris Brown College Dual Degrees Engineering Program; $100,000 from the 6th Episcopal District to support general operating expenses; $65,000 from The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation, Inc. for general scholarships; $50,000 from The UPS Foundation for ten students participating in The UPS Community Service Scholarship Program; $50,000 from BellSouth to be used as an unrestricted fund; $50,000 from Nations Bank to support Morris Brown College Nations Bank Scholars Program; $27,500 from The Statler Foundation for scholarships, national society memberships, travel, recruitment, brochures and supplies for Scholars Restaurant; and $10,000 from Burger King for the Mary B. Jordan Endowed Chair in Catering in the Hospitality Administration Department.

The University of South Florida has been awarded $1 million from the St. Petersburg Times to fund a number of scholarships, guest lectures and library improvements on the St. Petersburg and Tampa campuses. The gift was matched by $750,000 from the state of Florida.

The Phillip Morris Companies, Inc. have launched an $800,000 initiative to encourage non-traditional students to enter the teaching field. Extending the Bridge: Community Colleges and the Road to Teaching will support collaborations between university schools of education and community colleges that will encourage and prepare people of color and non-traditional students to enter teaching. The grant recipients received the following: Rancho Santiago/California State University at Fullerton, $100,000 Miami-Dade Community College/Florida International University, $100,000; Cowley County Community College/Wichita State, $96,000; Middlesex Community College, $100,000; Rockland Community College, $100,000; University of Rochester, $52,000; Rio Grande Community College/University of Rio Grande, $43,000; Shelby State/University of Memphis, $100,000; Piedmont Community College/University of Virginia, $100,000.

Compiled by Maya Matthews Submissions to the column should be sent to:

Black Issues In Higher Education, Attn: Maya Matthews, 10520 Warwick Avenue, Suite B-8, Fairfax, VA 22030 e-mail: maya@cmabiccw.com

Dr. Melvin C. Terrell is the vice president for student affairs at Northeastern Illinois University