I very much appreciate this perspective. I as well am frustrated by the lack of nuance that is expressed by most black intellectuals today. In our political climate, nuance is commonly perceived with suspicion, as it weakens the hyperbolic arguments of demagogues.
It isn’t just a black intellectual problem though; politics in general is awash with shallow analysis. For example, there is little effort by the political chatting caste to discuss or understand the political environment beyond the binary ideological model of “left” and “right.”
Without going into too much detail, I certainly see where the substance of this argument comes from. That originates from our history of black public intellectuals, almost all of which rose to public prominence by declaring what a sucky mess America had become because of the evils of white supremacy's disregard for civil rights and 'black bodies'. It is, outside of jazz, our most prominent intellectual inheritance. I suppose Cornel West would differ as he speaks quite highly of what he calls the prophetic tradition in [black American] Christianity, but much of that is also driven by opposition to a particular kind of evil.
One of the things I aim to do is to make some documentation of the library of black authors I have inherited. One only needs to think a moment to remember the parades of 'intellectuals' making the annual cover of Ebony Magazines "100 Most Influential Black Leaders". But what about Eldridge Cleaver? What kind of standard bearer was he? How many of us are quick to refer to the work of Molefi Kete Asante these days? I happen to have a copy in my hand. (Temple University Press, of course)
Check out this review on the back cover.
"In its refusal to construct explanatory or interpretive accounts that enable us to comprehend the multicultural and multiethnic character of the universe, Western inquiry is the villain of the piece... Asante's dramaturgy presents an alternative mode of inquiry. It persuasively suggests a model of rhetorical and scholarly production that fosters and accounts for the multiplicity of the human condition. What Asante achieves in his energetic analyses of such Afro-American orators as Nat Turner, Henry Highland Garnet, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X alone is worth the price of his efforts. His elaboration of symbols within Western and African-American rhetorical traditions suggests the appropriateness of an Afrocentric 'bravo'"
-- Houston Baker, American Journal of Sociology
From this, you would think people all over the world would have benefitted from such wisdom. Have we? What is Afrocentric today?
Thank you for the article. White intellectuals have been taken in by these theories as much, in my opinion. Like all ideas, there's a grain of truth in them - if you look hard enough at every human interaction, you will be able to find evidence of human frailty at work. The question is: why would you look so hard for evidence that people are bad? Power, anger, intellectual conceit.... like with every ideology since the dawn of time.
There is, rather, a conflict among black intellectuals - those thinkers who write here and elsewhere confronting the Coates and Kendi position. In fact Ithink it will be the former who save us by representing the many ordinary people who happen to be black and with whom we whites and others share workplaces, schools, recreational venues, etc. at least I hope so.
It could be interesting to have a debate on here about the extent to which we can agree with CRT advocates - on specific issues. I'm from England and I just read an article about racism in English tabloid papers e.g. Daily Mail and I would certainly agree that there is a systemic racism problem in that sleazy world. You in the US have some pretty awful media too. Any thoughts? Have a good Sunday
We here at https://enteringstageright.substack.com/ - a podcast dedicated to conservative political and cultural ideas, are thrilled to connect with Journal of Free Black Thought.
From that I perceived the author was overly rational, so likely to only pay attention where someone has an opinion DIFFERENT than his own. But I liked the pub and this particular article EXCEEDINGLY well. HOPE to prove that, like I "said," this afternoon, M. Kelley.
It would be a much stronger argument if you had taken the time to cite those of the "black intellectual elite" who are spreading conspiracy theories. Who are these people? bell hooks? Shelby Steele? Cornel West? Glenn Loury? Ibram Kendi? Thomas Sowell? Henry Louis Gates? Nikkole Hannah-Jones? John McWhorter? Ta-Nehisi Coates?
This article is a classic example of a person claiming that a specific group is engaging in a conspiratorial act but cites no evidence of the actual endeavor. Go and read Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in America Politics. He named names and showed examples.
Is physics a conspiracy? Why is the Eiffel Tower shaped the way it is? It is only 10,000 tons of wrought iron and does not have to support twice its own weight in concrete, glass and plumbing.
Each of the Twin Towers had 100,000 tons of steel. The 10,000 page NCSTAR1 report by the NIST does not even specify the total amount of concrete in the towers. There are skyscrapers all over the world more than 200 meters in height. They must all deal with the same gravity. Why would anyone care about the distribution of steel as long as they don't collapse. But coming straight down in less than 30 seconds should raise eyebrows and demand data.
It is now really amusing that scientists and engineers at NASA could orchestrate an inelastic collision with an asteroid 6 million miles away but have not commented on such a collision between the top of a skyscraper and it's lower 90 stories in 21 years.
Black people get mad when people of their own racial background pose the honest truth about their situation. Glenn Loury and John McWhorter clearly point out the first thing keeping black people down from progress and success... is black people. And this article is complicit in keeping your race down.
Here is an Ice Cube song from 30 years ago c1991...
Could you tell me who released our animal instinct?
And the white man sittin' there tickled pink
Laughin' at us on the avenue
Bustin' caps at each other after havin' brew
We can't enjoy ourselves
Too busy jealous
At each other's wealth
Commin' up is just in me
But the Black community is full of envy
Too much back stabbin'
While I look up the street I see all the Japs grabbin'
Every vacant lot in my neighborhood
Build a store, and sell their goods
To the county recips
You know us po niggas, nappy hair and big lips?
Four or five babies on your crotch
And you expect Uncle Sam to help us out?
We ain't nothin' but porch monkeys
To the average bigot, redneck honky
You say comin' up is a must
But before we can come up, take a look at US
Break em off some
And all y'all dope-dealers
Your as bad as the po-lice cause ya kill us
You got rich when you started slangin' dope
But you ain't built us a supermarket
So when can spend our money with the blacks
Too busy buyin' gold an' Caddilacs
That's what ya doin' with the money that ya raisin'
Exploitin' us like the Caucasians did
For four hundred years, I got four hundred tears for four hundred peers
Died last year from gang-related crimes
That's why I got gang-related rhymes
But when I do a show ta kick some facts
Us Blacks don't know how ta act
Sometimes I believe the hype, man
We're messin' up ourselves and blame the white man
But don't point the finger you jiggaboo
Take a look at yourself ya dumb nigga you
Pretty soon hip-hop won't be so nice
No Ice Cube, just Vanilla Ice
And y'all sit and scream and cuss
But there's no one ta blame, but US
Break em off some
Us will always sing the blues
'Cause all we care about is hairstyles and tennis shoes
But if ya step on mine ya pushed a button
"Cause I'll beat you down like it ain't nothin'
Just like a beast
But I'm the first nigga ta holler out (peace, black man)
I beat my wife and children to a pulp
When I get drunk and smoke dope
Got a bad heart condition
Still eat hog-mogs an' chitlin's
Bet my money on the dice and the horses
Jobless, so I'm a hope for the armed forces
Go to church but they tease us
Wit' a picture of a blue-eyed Jesus
They used to call me Negro
After all this time I'm still bustin' up the chiffarobe
No respect and didn't know it
And I'm havin' more babies than I really can afford
9/11? Throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Since disavowal of 9/11 "conspiracy theories" sounds so intellectually dishonest, I'm concluding this essay is willfully misleading. Laying a good foundation regarding the "white supremacy rules the modern world" mentality and shoehorning in some garbage which exonerates the very real guilty parties who committed 9/11 and countless other atrocities, including deliberately sewing *this very* division among the races. In other words, limited hangout.
I very much appreciate this perspective. I as well am frustrated by the lack of nuance that is expressed by most black intellectuals today. In our political climate, nuance is commonly perceived with suspicion, as it weakens the hyperbolic arguments of demagogues.
It isn’t just a black intellectual problem though; politics in general is awash with shallow analysis. For example, there is little effort by the political chatting caste to discuss or understand the political environment beyond the binary ideological model of “left” and “right.”
Without going into too much detail, I certainly see where the substance of this argument comes from. That originates from our history of black public intellectuals, almost all of which rose to public prominence by declaring what a sucky mess America had become because of the evils of white supremacy's disregard for civil rights and 'black bodies'. It is, outside of jazz, our most prominent intellectual inheritance. I suppose Cornel West would differ as he speaks quite highly of what he calls the prophetic tradition in [black American] Christianity, but much of that is also driven by opposition to a particular kind of evil.
One of the things I aim to do is to make some documentation of the library of black authors I have inherited. One only needs to think a moment to remember the parades of 'intellectuals' making the annual cover of Ebony Magazines "100 Most Influential Black Leaders". But what about Eldridge Cleaver? What kind of standard bearer was he? How many of us are quick to refer to the work of Molefi Kete Asante these days? I happen to have a copy in my hand. (Temple University Press, of course)
Check out this review on the back cover.
"In its refusal to construct explanatory or interpretive accounts that enable us to comprehend the multicultural and multiethnic character of the universe, Western inquiry is the villain of the piece... Asante's dramaturgy presents an alternative mode of inquiry. It persuasively suggests a model of rhetorical and scholarly production that fosters and accounts for the multiplicity of the human condition. What Asante achieves in his energetic analyses of such Afro-American orators as Nat Turner, Henry Highland Garnet, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X alone is worth the price of his efforts. His elaboration of symbols within Western and African-American rhetorical traditions suggests the appropriateness of an Afrocentric 'bravo'"
-- Houston Baker, American Journal of Sociology
From this, you would think people all over the world would have benefitted from such wisdom. Have we? What is Afrocentric today?
Thank you for the article. White intellectuals have been taken in by these theories as much, in my opinion. Like all ideas, there's a grain of truth in them - if you look hard enough at every human interaction, you will be able to find evidence of human frailty at work. The question is: why would you look so hard for evidence that people are bad? Power, anger, intellectual conceit.... like with every ideology since the dawn of time.
There is, rather, a conflict among black intellectuals - those thinkers who write here and elsewhere confronting the Coates and Kendi position. In fact Ithink it will be the former who save us by representing the many ordinary people who happen to be black and with whom we whites and others share workplaces, schools, recreational venues, etc. at least I hope so.
It could be interesting to have a debate on here about the extent to which we can agree with CRT advocates - on specific issues. I'm from England and I just read an article about racism in English tabloid papers e.g. Daily Mail and I would certainly agree that there is a systemic racism problem in that sleazy world. You in the US have some pretty awful media too. Any thoughts? Have a good Sunday
Adam Coleman's material here: https://wrongspeak.net/adam-b-coleman/ Having a look now.
PERFECTO!
We here at https://enteringstageright.substack.com/ - a podcast dedicated to conservative political and cultural ideas, are thrilled to connect with Journal of Free Black Thought.
I use “M.” like the French do, for Monsieur but ALSO for Mesdames and Mademoiselle EQUALLY. ALL CAPS are ITALICS. :)
I just finished reading William Zinsser's "On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition" and I despair.
I bought Your book, M. Coleman, and will start reading it, prolly later today after a short walk and some writing.
Part of the writing will necessarily hafta be a rebuttal of M. Kelley. We could not POSSIBLY disagree more. My only complaint with the author is https://wrongspeak.net/how-to-effectively-communicate-for-political-discussions/
From that I perceived the author was overly rational, so likely to only pay attention where someone has an opinion DIFFERENT than his own. But I liked the pub and this particular article EXCEEDINGLY well. HOPE to prove that, like I "said," this afternoon, M. Kelley.
It would be a much stronger argument if you had taken the time to cite those of the "black intellectual elite" who are spreading conspiracy theories. Who are these people? bell hooks? Shelby Steele? Cornel West? Glenn Loury? Ibram Kendi? Thomas Sowell? Henry Louis Gates? Nikkole Hannah-Jones? John McWhorter? Ta-Nehisi Coates?
This article is a classic example of a person claiming that a specific group is engaging in a conspiratorial act but cites no evidence of the actual endeavor. Go and read Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in America Politics. He named names and showed examples.
Is physics a conspiracy? Why is the Eiffel Tower shaped the way it is? It is only 10,000 tons of wrought iron and does not have to support twice its own weight in concrete, glass and plumbing.
Each of the Twin Towers had 100,000 tons of steel. The 10,000 page NCSTAR1 report by the NIST does not even specify the total amount of concrete in the towers. There are skyscrapers all over the world more than 200 meters in height. They must all deal with the same gravity. Why would anyone care about the distribution of steel as long as they don't collapse. But coming straight down in less than 30 seconds should raise eyebrows and demand data.
It is now really amusing that scientists and engineers at NASA could orchestrate an inelastic collision with an asteroid 6 million miles away but have not commented on such a collision between the top of a skyscraper and it's lower 90 stories in 21 years.
Black people get mad when people of their own racial background pose the honest truth about their situation. Glenn Loury and John McWhorter clearly point out the first thing keeping black people down from progress and success... is black people. And this article is complicit in keeping your race down.
Here is an Ice Cube song from 30 years ago c1991...
Could you tell me who released our animal instinct?
And the white man sittin' there tickled pink
Laughin' at us on the avenue
Bustin' caps at each other after havin' brew
We can't enjoy ourselves
Too busy jealous
At each other's wealth
Commin' up is just in me
But the Black community is full of envy
Too much back stabbin'
While I look up the street I see all the Japs grabbin'
Every vacant lot in my neighborhood
Build a store, and sell their goods
To the county recips
You know us po niggas, nappy hair and big lips?
Four or five babies on your crotch
And you expect Uncle Sam to help us out?
We ain't nothin' but porch monkeys
To the average bigot, redneck honky
You say comin' up is a must
But before we can come up, take a look at US
Break em off some
And all y'all dope-dealers
Your as bad as the po-lice cause ya kill us
You got rich when you started slangin' dope
But you ain't built us a supermarket
So when can spend our money with the blacks
Too busy buyin' gold an' Caddilacs
That's what ya doin' with the money that ya raisin'
Exploitin' us like the Caucasians did
For four hundred years, I got four hundred tears for four hundred peers
Died last year from gang-related crimes
That's why I got gang-related rhymes
But when I do a show ta kick some facts
Us Blacks don't know how ta act
Sometimes I believe the hype, man
We're messin' up ourselves and blame the white man
But don't point the finger you jiggaboo
Take a look at yourself ya dumb nigga you
Pretty soon hip-hop won't be so nice
No Ice Cube, just Vanilla Ice
And y'all sit and scream and cuss
But there's no one ta blame, but US
Break em off some
Us will always sing the blues
'Cause all we care about is hairstyles and tennis shoes
But if ya step on mine ya pushed a button
"Cause I'll beat you down like it ain't nothin'
Just like a beast
But I'm the first nigga ta holler out (peace, black man)
I beat my wife and children to a pulp
When I get drunk and smoke dope
Got a bad heart condition
Still eat hog-mogs an' chitlin's
Bet my money on the dice and the horses
Jobless, so I'm a hope for the armed forces
Go to church but they tease us
Wit' a picture of a blue-eyed Jesus
They used to call me Negro
After all this time I'm still bustin' up the chiffarobe
No respect and didn't know it
And I'm havin' more babies than I really can afford
In jail 'cause I can't pay the mother
Held back in life because of my color
Now this is just a little summary
Of US, but y'all think it's dumb of me
To hold a mirror to ya face, but trust
Nobody gives a fuck about
US
9/11? Throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Since disavowal of 9/11 "conspiracy theories" sounds so intellectually dishonest, I'm concluding this essay is willfully misleading. Laying a good foundation regarding the "white supremacy rules the modern world" mentality and shoehorning in some garbage which exonerates the very real guilty parties who committed 9/11 and countless other atrocities, including deliberately sewing *this very* division among the races. In other words, limited hangout.