Black politics and the challenges for the left

Monthly Review, April, 1990 by Manning Marable

NOTES

(1) Michael Oreskes, "Black Candidate in Virginia: Campaign Is Not a Crusade," New York Times, 3 November 1989. Also see B. Drummond Ayres, Jr., "Black Virginia Politician Takes Run at History," New York Times, 16 April 1989; and Tom Wicker, "Drama in Virginia," New York Times, 3 November 1989.

(2) James Zogby, "Dinkins Has Locked Arab Americans Out of His Campaign," City Sun, 18-24 October, 1989; Celestine Bohlen, "Arab Group Says Dinkins Shunned Their Bid to Help," New York Times, 19 October 1989; and Howard Kurtz, "Arab Americans in New York Say Mayoral Nominees Spurn Support," Washington Post, 16 October 1989.

(3) Immediately following his election, Wilder urged Democrats to move to the right ideologically and programmatically. Democratic presidential campaigns must support the "values of the overwhelming majority of the people in this country," including the "free enterprise system" and "holding the line on taxes." See Robin Toner, "Enter the Mainstream, Wilder Tells Democrats," New York Times, 14 November 1989.

Manning Marable is professor of political science and sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is completing a political biography of Malcolm X, and is also at work on a study of black American protest movements, Black Liberation.