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

Black Issues in Higher Education, July 24, 1997 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. :