homework for kim wood

160 WE W H O A RE D A R K

5

Race, Culture, and Politics

It is inconceivable that I feel alienated from the Western tradi­

tion; my people have contributed so much that is vital and

good to it. I am alienated from the people who call themselves

white, who think they own Western tradition.

-Nikki Giovanni, Racism 101 (1994)

I have argued that a black public philosophy should include a com­

m itment to antiracism, antipoverty, and substant ive racial equality.

Yet many advocates of black solidarity would urge that we also

include a commitment to black c ultural autonomy. At l east since

the late nineteenth century, prominent black intellect uals, artists,

and activists have advoc ated various form s of bl ack cultural self­

determination. And as William Van Deburg has observed, cul­

tural nationalism, p erhaps more than any other ideology of the

Black Power era, continues to have an enormous impact on African

American self-understanding, political consciousness, and social

institutions.' Moreover, the c ultural politics of difference (or multi­

culturalism), which many progressives embrace, has some striking

similarities to the cultural nationalism of the Black Power move­

ment. Thus many have come to think of this "politics of recogni­

tion" as an endur ing component of black politics.

162 W E W H O A RE DARK

In light o f its continuing currency, I want to critically evaluate

the principal claims o f black cultural nationalism. The fo cu s of this

inquiry, as before, will be on the philosophical presuppositions and

political significance of the doctrine. I will argue that black Ameri­

cans should not embrace black cultural n ationalism as a compo­

nent o f their public philosophy and that contemporary black poli­

tics should not be understo o d o n the model of multiculturalism.

Black cultural nationalism (though not always under the label

nationalist) takes a variety of forms, as it has had numerous pro­

ponents o f various ideological stripes at different historical mo­

ments. Canonical representatives include W. E. B. D u Bois, Alain

Locke, Amiri Baraka, Harold Cruse, Haki Madhubuti, Maulana

Karenga, and Molefi Asante.2 Rather than discuss each historic al

variant, I o ffer a general characterization-a sort of Weberian ideal

type o r heuristic construct-comprised of eight tenets.3 These ten­

ets should not be regarded as the necessary and sufficient doctrinal

commitments for o n e to co unt as a bona fide cultural nationalist.

Nor do they aim to get at the "essence" of black cultural n ational­

ism. The tenets are m e rely meant to articulate, in a relatively ab­

stract and schematic way, what I take to be the main concerns of

those who seek black cultural autonomy. But my aim is to charac­

terize this popular philosophy in such a way that any proponent of

black cultural auto nomy wo uld endorse some substantial subset of

the tenets and wo uld be generally sympathetic to them all.

There will b e some who subscribe to a number o f the followin g

tenets yet do not think of themselves as nationalists of any sort.

With regard to such persons I see no need to insist o n the designa­

tion nationalist, a label to which many would object. Some wou ld

prefer to be regarded as "cultural pluralists" to distinguish them­

selves from versio ns or aspects of the doctrine that they reject.

Again, my point is not to debate political labels but to critically en­

gage with substantive positions that are widely accepted among

RACE, C U LT U RE, A ND P O LIT I C S 163

those who identify with, or at least have some affinity for, the n a­

tion alist tradition.

Tenets of Black Cultural Nationalism

Each of the following eight tenets of black cultural natio nalism has

embedded within in it both factual ( descriptive) and normative

(evaluative) presuppositions. In this section I will make these as­

sumptions explicit and outline the basic rationale behind each

tenet. Part o f the aim will b e to suggest how they fit together to

form a coherent o utlook-a black nationalist philosophy o f cul­

ture.

1. Distinctiveness: T here is a distinct black culture that is different

from (and perhaps, though not necessarily, in opposition to) white

culture. The "black" culture in question is sometimes understood

narrowly to mean indigenous African American culture (that is,

the culture o f African slaves in North America and their descen­

dants ) . Alternatively it may b e tho ught to include cultures from the

broader diaspora ( fo r example, from parts o f Latin America or the

Caribbean ) or from sub-Saharan Africa. The relevant "white" cul­

ture is conceived variously as WASP, Anglo -Christian, Euro-Ameri­

c an, European, o r Western . Within these categories, some wo uld

also distinguish between high, middle-brow, and popular culture

or, alternatively, between fine art and folk expression. For simplic­

ity , I will use the terms black and white to denote all conceptual

variants, an d I will not invoke a high/low or fine/folk distinction.

The account o f the specific characteristics of and differences be­

tween black and white cultures varies with the particular advocate

of black cultural nationalism. Yet it would not b e unfair to say that

su ch accounts generally characterize black culture as fu ndamen­

tally oral, communal, harmonio us, emotive, spontaneous, spiritual,

e arthy, experiential, i mprovisational, colorful, sensual, uninhibited,

164 WE W H O A R E DA R K

dialogical, inclusive, a n d dem ocratic. White c ulture, b y c ontrast, is

often viewed as essentially logocentric, individualistic, a nta gonistic,

rationalistic, formal, materialistic, abstract, cerebral, rigid, bland,

repressed, monological , elitist, a n d hegemonic. These are, as I say,

typical way s of representing the differences between the two cul­

tures. Other, perhaps more nuanced, way s of distinguishing them

are of course possible. 4

2. Collective Consciousness: Blacks must rediscover and collectively

reclaim their culture, developing a consciousness and a lifestyle that

are rooted in this heritage. It is thought that this would enable

blacks to form an identity on their own t erms, a utonomously and

endogenously. Some c ultural nationalists concede that black cul­

ture, especially the A fr ican American var iety, has been eroded or

suppressed by other ethnonational groups, in particular those of

European descent. But rather than acquiesce to this cultural impe­

r ialism, they insist that this loss of cultural distinctiveness is all the

more reason for blacks to self-organize a n d perhaps to self-segre­

gate in order to revive their heritage or construct a new indepen­

dent c ulture without the interference of nonblacks.

3. Conservation: Black culture is an invaluable collective good that

blacks should identify with, take pride in, actively reproduce, and

creatively develop. Black culture is held to provide ma ny benefits

for blacks, including these: a basis for psychological integration,

sources of self- esteem a n d group pride, a r epertoire of valued social

roles, a stock of useful skills a n d techniques, c onventions of social

intercourse, artifacts of a esthetic worth and historical import, im­

ages of symbolic significance, distinctive sty les of expr ession, a ven­

erable intellec tual tra dition, and common narratives that contain

vital sociohistorical knowledge. The loss or decay of this culture

would be tragic, as it would mean the disappearance of an irre­

placeable a n d multifaceted, shared social good. As they (could)

benefit in countless way s from its existence a n d would be har med

R A CE, C U L T U RE, A N D P O L I TICS 165

by its extinction, blacks must do their par t to preserve black cul­

ture. This may involve, among other things, contributing to the

establishment and maintenance of c ultural institutions, such as

schools, churches, archives, a n d media a n d entertainment outlets,

that store and disseminate black cultural knowledge and artifacts.

4. Rootedness: Unlike white culture, black culture provides a stable

and rich basis for feelings of community and for the construction of

positive and healthy individual identities. Some have maintained

that many blacks suffer fr om self-alienation and dislocation as a re­

sult of living (or attempting to live) in accordance with the values

and norms of a white culture that dispara ges the ability, beauty, and

moral character of black people. Authentic black culture, they con­

tend, offer s a sense of rootedness within a unified community, a

space that feels more like home. This culture provides an existential

defense against madness and self-destruction in a world hostile to

the very presence of black peoples. An identity fortified by black

cultural tra ditions will be more self-affirming and better integrated,

and thus blacks should accept c ultural blackness as an integral

component of their sense of self.

5. Emancipatory Tool: Black culture is an essential tool of liberation,

a necessary weapon to resist white domination, and a vehicle for the

expression of nationalist ideals. A role for-or the role of-black

artists, intellectuals, and c ultural critics is thus to produce wor ks

tha t represent and affirm the authentic black exper ience and that

inspire ordinary black folk to wor k for freedom and independence.

Some black nationalists have no fa ith in the emancipatory potential

of white culture, for they believe (or at least suspect) that it is inher­

ently biased a gainst black interests or that it is contrary to the true

sen sibility of blacks. Some maintain that no dignified fight for self­

determination can be carr ied out using the culture of the oppressor

group. Hence, the struggle for cultural self-determination must b e

prosecuted using cultural weapons taken solely ( o r almost exclu-

166 WE W H O A R E D A R K

sively) from the black world. And those resources should b e used

for the uplift and advancement of black people, not simply for self­

expression or personal gain.

6. Public Recognition: The state should refrain from actions that

prevent the endogenous reproduction of black culture; and non­

blacks, perhaps with encouragement from the state, should cultivate

tolerance and respect for black culture. The vast majority of black

Americans are n ot immigrants or the descendants of imm igrants

but the descendants of African slaves, forced into exile in the Amer­

icas. Although the United States did not appropriate their nat ive

land, the people of African descent in Americ a have them selves

b een annexed to t h e Un ited States. They thus have no obligation to

assimilate, as perhaps voluntary immigrants or refugees do. As a

stigmatized m inority culture t hreatened by white cultural imperial­

ism , black culture has a right to protection and social recognition.

The government may even have an obligation to support black cul­

tural infrastructures through public finance or tax breaks.

7. Commercial Rights: Blacks must become the primary producers,

purveyors, and beneficiaries (financial and otherwise) of their cul­

ture. Nonblacks have reaped tremendous profits from the exploita­

t i on of black culture ( especially its music and vernacular style).

Moreover, blacks are rarely given full c redit for their innovations

that have contributed to Americ an c ulture, and they are almost

never appropriately compensated for them. However, if blacks are

to have c ultural autonomy, then they must be the ones to decide if

and how their culture is to be used for commercial en ds, and they

should be t h e ones to gain profit and recognition from this use.

8. Interpretive Authority: Blacks are (or must become) and should

be regarded as the foremost interpreters of the meaning of their cul­

tural ways. This claim has a dual basis. F irst, some white teachers,

scholars, and art critics have taken up the task of explaining the sig-

R A CE, C U L T U R E , A N D P O L I T I C S 167

nificance and value of black c ultural practices to the rest of the

world. Because of their white privilege and the general disparage­

ment of black cogn itive abilities, white interpretations of black cul­

ture are sometimes accepted ( even by some blacks) as more au­

thoritat ive than black interpretations. Second, white interpretations

of black culture typically contain considerable distortion and mis­

representation, leading to greater stigmat ization and widespread

misunderstan d in g of the distinct ive ways of black life. But even

knowledgeable whites with genuine good will toward blacks often

mischaracterize black culture simply because, given their whiteness,

they are inc apable of being fully incorporated into the c ulture they

wish to represent. Their ineradicable outsider-status prevents them

from fully understanding and thus appreciating the c ulture from

the inside.

Responding to t h e Legacy of Cultural Imperialism

Black cultural nationalism is often criticized on the grounds that no

black culture exists (or could exist ) separate from so-called white

cult ure. This challenges the very coherence of the idea of black c ul­

tural autonomy. Although I would reject the crude, ahistorical, and

M anichaean visions of black/white c ultural difference put forward

by c ultural nationalists, I do not deny that it is coherent an d useful

to speak of specifically black forms of cultural life. For purposes of

the argument to follow, then, I assume that there is such a culture

(or cultures) along with a white counterpart (or counterparts) . My

foc us will b e on how blacks should think about and relate pract i ­

cally to these cultures.

First, it is important to note that not all persons designated as

racially black self-identify as culturally black. The significance

of this fact should not b e underestimat ed. The cultural nationalist

is speaking not merely to those black individuals who already have

a robust and committed black c ultural identity, but also to those

who are tempted to assimilate, who only marginally identify as cul-

168 WE W H O A R E D A R K

turally black, o r who are not c ulturally black at all. Thus whether

the collective consciousness tenet is ultimately defensible will de­

pend c rucially on whether the cultural nationalist claims merely

that it is permissible and laudable for blacks to identify with and re­

produce their culture o r that blacks have an obligation to embrace

black culture.

Most will agree that blacks should b e free to develop and main­

tain their cultural identities without being inhibited by unjust mea­

sures or artificial barriers. But it does not follow from this that their

cultural identities must be rooted in black culture, no matter how

cultural blackness is defined. Keep in mind that c ultural autonomy

is a right that blacks may exercise or, if it is denied that there is such

a right, a legitimate goal that blacks m ay strive for. It is perfectly

consistent with such a right or goal that those blacks who do not

desire this form of group self-determination are free to c ultivate an

alternative cultural identity, even to assimilate completely to white

culture. On straightforward grounds of freedom of association, and

provided they respect the autonomy of individuals to opt out,

blacks are entitled to self-organize to preserve black culture by es­

tablishing separate educational, religious, and artistic institutions

and by maintaining historical societies and museums over which

blacks committed to the cause would have controJ.5

However, a familiar argument for a positive obligation to de­

velop a shared consciousness in black culture goes as follows.

American slaveholders prevented slaves from reproducing their Af- .

rican cultural forms, and historic ally blacks have often been misin­

formed or prevented from learning about their Afric an heritage.

Such actions deprived generations of the knowledge of their ethnic

or national origins. Moreover, racist ideology maintains that blacks

have no worthwhile culture of their own-neither past nor pres­

ent-and that therefore they should allow themselves to be assimi­

lated into a "civilized" culture. Part of the oppression that blacks

have experience d thus involves the malicious deprecation of their

R A C E , C U LT U R E , A N D P O L I TICS 169

culture. This assault on the value of black cultural contributions

has been so thoroughly damaging to the self-esteem of blacks that

many fail to identify with and take pride in their unique c ultural

heritage. Hence, in order to reclaim their self-respect and dignity as

a people, blacks must participate in, celebrate, and identify with

black culture. Once we fully understand this, we will see that a col­

lective identity, rooted in black cultural traditions, is a constitutive

part of black liberation.

Historic ally, and even now, this has been a very influential argu­

ment. And, like so many others, I have been tempted to accept its

conclusion. But this urge must be resisted, powerful as it is, for

while much of what the argument suggests is true and important, it

simply does not follow that the best or only response to the issues it

raises is to make a common cultural identity a fundamental aim of

black political solidarity. Blacks can restore and maintain their dig­

nity in the face of the legacy of white cultural imperiaJism and the

devaluation of black culture(s) without adopting a collective cul­

tural consciousness. For decades now, blacks have fought white su­

premacy and the c ultural stigma it imposes by c elebrating, both

privately and publicly, black history and c ultures. This has been

done through a variety of vehicles, including Black History Month;

cultural festivals; black periodicals, books, and documentaries; Af­

rican American museums and archives; the B E T n etwork; black re­

ligious and political organizations; black private schools and col­

leges; black studies programs at predominantly white universities;

and, more recently, numerous sites on the Web. These are all essen­

tial efforts to educate blacks and non blacks alike about black his­

tory and black struggles, to instill in blacks a sense of pride, and to

cultivate a greater apprec iation for the cultural contributions of

black people to this country and world. And there i s no doubt that

blacks should be inform ed about their history and cultures-as

should non blacks-for, at a m inimum, this will help them better

understand the nature of their subordination and the possible

170 WE W H O A R E D A R K

routes to freedom. Yet none o f this requires embracing a common

cultural identity. One can acknowledge the importance of learning

black history and appreciating the beauty of black cultures without

treating cultural blackness, however delimited, as defining who one

is as a person or allowing it to set the boundaries o f one's lifesty le or

self-understanding.

The Blackness of Whites

By foc using o n the collective good that black culture provides to

those who b e nefit fro m it, tenet 3-the conservation principle­

suggests a different basis for a positive duty to embrace black cul­

ture. I t is not at all clear that just because blacks (could) benefit

fro m the existence of black culture, they thereby incur a duty to ac­

tively preserve it; but if we do suppo se that they have such a duty,

parallel reasoning wo uld suggest that they also have an obligation

to preserve many aspects of what is sometimes regarded as white

culture. Perhaps the cultural nationalist can concede this. After all,

it is consistent with tenets 2 and 3 that blacks have an obligation to

adopt a cultural way o f life that is rooted in both black and white

cultures. I n deed, some have maintained that the creative and dy ­

namic sy nthesis of European (or Euro -American) and African (or

Afro -American) cultural elements is precisely what is unique about

the for m and content of modern black c ultural expressio n.6 This

emphasis o n hy br idity is certainly a more nuanced view of the

meaning of diasporic blackness than is typic ally advanced by cul­

tural nationalists. The difficulty with this position, however, is that,

on this reasoning, nonblacks would also have a duty to preserve

black c ulture, as they too have benefited in countless way s from its

existence.7 Ralph Ellison has famously emphasized this impor tant

point:

The problem here is that few Americans know who and what

they really are. That is why few of these [ethnic] groups-or

R A CE, C U LT U RE, A N D P O LITICS

at least few of the children of these groups-have been able to

resist the movies, television, baseball, jazz, foo tball, drum­

majoretting, rock, comic strips, radio commercials, soap op­

eras, book clubs, slang, or any o f a thousand other expressions

and carriers- o f our pluralistic and easily available popular

culture. It is here precisely that ethnic r esistance is least ef­

fec tive. On this level the melting pot did indeed melt, creat­

ing such deceptive metamorphoses and blending o f identities,

values and lifesty les that most American whites are culturally

par t Negro American without even realizing it.8

171

Moreover, there are aspects of black culture that whites have

played a constructive role in maintaining and developing-such as

musical forms and literary traditions. Do their efforts make the cul­

ture any less black? Or are we oper ati ng, absurdly, with a rever se

"one-drop rule" o f culture-with a criterion that holds that a cul­

tural trait is black if and o nly if blacks alone invented it and it i s

white i f any whites h a d a hand in i t s creation? To say that a c ultural

trait is black or white depending on which racial gro up played the

lar ger role in creating it is still somewhat arbitr ary, coming quite

close to a racialized conception of culture. But even if we accept this

major ity-contribution criterion for ethnocultural provenance, this

would not entail that blacks alone have an obligation to perpetuate

black culture. Because many nonblacks benefit from the existence

of black culture (whether or not they have contributed to its cre­

ation), it would seem that these nonblack beneficiaries should also

play a role in sustaining it. Certainly it wo uld be perverse to insist

that those nonblacks who now play a constructive role in perpetu­

ating the culture should cease to do so.

Perhaps the underlying worry is that some whites may have a

corrupting or disproportionate influence on the development of

black culture and thus that it is essential (as tenets 7 and 8 suggest)

that blacks lead and maintain control over this conservation proj -

In WE W H O A RE D A R K

ect, ensuring that there a r e at least s o m e all-black or black-led cul­

tural infrast ructural institut ions. Yet even if we concede that the

fat e of black culture should rest largely in black hands, this would

not, by itself, entail a duty on the part of blacks to embrace a black

cultural identity. Granted, if black culture were to come under un­

justified siege or suppression and as a result were threatened with

ext inct i on, then there arguably would be an obligation on the part

of blacks to act to preserve it, especially if the state refused to help

and if, because of race prejudice, nonblacks failed to see why it was

worth t h e trouble. Here t h e obligation to keep black culture alive

would spring fro m the obligation to resist the injust ice of cultural

intolerance. However, discharging this duty does not require one to

identify with the culture as specifically or exclusively one's own, as a

part of who one "really " is. While m a intaining an alternat ive cul­

tural ident ity, one could s imply contribute funds and other re­

sources t o those inst itutions committed to black cultural preser­

vat ion and development . O r one could, in a suitably post-ethnic

spirit, periodically participate in black cultural practices, just as one

might do with respect to the cultures of other groups.

Culture as Group Inheritance

B ut there is a deeper, and quite old, philosophical question here.

Should a person value t h e elements of a culture because they are in­

trinsically or instrument ally valuable; or, rather, should she value

them because they are components of her cult ure-that is, because

she i s black and because these elements are a p art of black culture?

If she should value them because they are valuable, then there is no

reason to think that she, as a black person, has a special stake in

black cultural forms, a stake t h at is different from that of the mem­

bers of other racial groups. All who view the culture as beautiful or

useful, regardless of their racial ident ity, have a reason to value and

preserve it. But if she should value it because she is black, then in

R A C E , C U LT U R E , A N D P O LITICS 173

what way, if at all, does the proprietary claim (It is mine) just ify or

ent ail the evaluat ive claim (I should value it)?

Henry Louis Gates Jr. has argued that the proprietary claim itself

should b e questioned: "I got mine: The rhetoric o f l iberal education

remains suffused with the imagery of possession, patrimony, legacy,

lineage, inheritan ce-call it cultural geneticism (in the broadest

sense of t hat term). At the same moment, the rhetoric of possession

and lineage subsists upon, and perpet uates, a division: between us

and them, we the heirs of our tradit ion, and you, the Others, whose

differen ce defines our ident ity."9 Gates suggests that we abandon

this discourse of cultural possession, the lynchpin of cultural na­

tionalism. In his view, by accepting the proprietary premise, native­

born blacks who are descended from African slaves, having been

dispossessed of their African ethnic culture, inevit ably end up af­

firming their stat us as cultural outsiders and interlopers in the place

of their birth and the only home they have ever known .

In seeking to groun d the evaluative claim in the proprietary

claim, the cultural nationalist must avoid this trap of cultural self­

marginalization. Consider a few way s that this might be accom­

plished. First, she could t ake the short road: blacks created the cul­

ture, so they should value it. But surely the fact that blacks created

the culture does not, in itself, give them a reason to value it . We do

somet imes create things that lack value; and it would be more than

a bit paradoxical to insist that people should value things that lack

value, to insist that they embrace junk. This i s not to say that valu­

ing something that lacks value is irration al. People sometimes con­

fer value on otherwise worthless things, such as items that would b e

considered junk if not for t h e i r sentimental value. But a s to t h e

question of whether a black person should value the elements o f a

culture s imply because these elements are a part of her culture ( in a

sense yet to be specified), it would seem that the value of the culture

is a necessary condition for justifying this normative claim. Let's

174 WE W H O A R E D A R K

proceed, then, on the assumption that black culture is valuable, ob­

ject ively speaking. So the question becomes this: Assuming the in­

t rinsic m er it or instrumental value of a cultural form, i s there a fur­

ther reason to value it that springs fro m a proprietary claim?

Per haps a black person should value black culture because of its

role in making her who she is. So Sarah Vaughan might have valued

black culture because its musical traditions contributed to her be­

coming a great jazz vocalist, which, we may assume, was a constitu­

t ive component of her identity. But nonblacks could value the cul­

ture for this same reason, because many of them have been

posit ively impacted by black cultural traditions. M oreover, many

blacks will not feel this way, for the culture m ay have had little im­

pact on who they have become. Thus, although this account may

provide those who already have a strong black cultural identity with

a reason to value black culture, it does not give blacks, in virtue of

their racial classification, a special reason to value black culture.

Here the culture does not belong to me i n virtue of my member­

ship in a racial group; it belongs t o me, when it does, in virtue of

the fact that it i s a part of me.

A third possibility is that we can value a culture because we have

participated in its maintenance or development. Here we value it

because its reproduction is a product of our efforts. So, for exam­

ple, by participating in black rhetorical repartee-what Gates calls

the vernacular art of signifyin'-one contributes to keep ing this

lively and enjoy able practice alive.1o As one's contribution is a

source of pride, one would therefore have a reason, apart from its

intrinsic merits or utility, to value the culture. But, again, many

nonblacks participate-to good effect , one might add-in black

culture, while some blacks have made little or no contribution to

the preservat ion or advancement of black culture. Some, arguably,

have had a negat ive impact on it . Thus, some nonblacks could have

an achievement -based reason to value black culture, notwithstand­

ing the fact that the culture is not "theirs," and some blacks will lack

RACE, C U LT U R E , A N D P O LITICS 175

such a reason, despite the fact the culture ostensibly "belongs" to

them.

A fourth possibility is to hold that individual blacks have a rea­

son to value black culture, quite apart from whether they have

made any contribut ion to it, because it is the product of the imagi­

nation and effort s of their people. On this view, it is because blacks

view themselves as const itut ing a dist inct ethnoracial community

that they can r ightly t ake pr ide in the achievements of the other

members of the group, in much the same way that a child might

take just pride in his mother's achievements even though he has

had little to do with her success and, indeed, m ay have been a hin­

drance to it. It is this sense of "we-ness" or shared belonging, rooted

in mutual recognition, that underpins the special claim that all

blacks have on black culture. Whites may indeed have b enefited

from, been shaped by, participated in, or contributed to black cul­

ture. But because they lack the descent relat ion and somatic charac­

teristics that classify someone as racially black, they are not recog­

nized members of the black nation and thus cannot possess this

unique reason for valuing "its" culture.

The fact that black racial identity has its origins i n the ideologi­

cal fiction of "race" does not undermine the idea of blacks as a peo­

ple. Other national identities are derived from similar myths­

think of American narrat ives about being a free and democratic

country even while it allowed slavery and denied women the fran­

chise. The trouble with the position under considerat ion is not that

blacks are not a people but rather that it does not follow that blacks

have a duty to embrace black culture simply because they are ra­

cially black. At most, black peoplehood makes it permissible for

blacks to t ake special pr ide i n black culture and thus to value it as

uniquely their own. Such identification is their birthright. Yet it

does not entail that blacks cannot fully participate or find ful­

fillment in white culture. Those who do not strongly or pr imar ily

identify with blacks as their people, or with black culture as

176 WE W H O A RE D A R K

uniquely theirs, have no special obligation to take u p a black cul­

tural identity. I n this way, being entitled to identify with black cul­

ture as one's own entails having the freedom not to exerc ise this

right. Thus, without deny ing who one is as a black person, one may

reject or simply ignore one's black cultural heritage.

Instability, Hybridity, and Rootlessness

Tenet 4, which emphasizes the value of rootedness, suggests an ad­

ditional reason why blacks should cultivate a black cultural ident ity.

It insists that black culture can prov ide blacks with a more stable

and healthier basis for communal fellowship and identity construc­

tion than white culture c a n . B efore considering the plausibility of

this claim, we should note that cultures are never static but change

with the sociohistorical c o ntext.11 Such contextual factors will in­

clude prevailing economic c o nditions, state policy, material inter­

dependence of cultural groups, those groups' relative isolation or

integration, social pressures to assimilate or remain separate, and

the number and kinds of cultural groups living in close proximity

or otherwise having access to each other's cultural way s . We should

also keep i n mind t hat there has been significant black immigration

to the United States in recent years from Africa, Latin America, the

Caribbean, and E u rope, and that these black peoples have quite di­

verse cultural and national identities. Their presence in Am erica

has clearly altered the contours and c o ntent of the greater black cul­

t ural milieu, reshaping our sense of the scope of black diasporic

culture.

Given the external and internal forces that c reate cultural dyna­

mism and hybridity, there cannot be a stable or rooted black cul­

tural identity in contemporary America. This does not i n itself

mean that blacks c a nnot cultivate a n d sustain feelings of commu­

nity among them selves. However, it i s by no means obvious that

black culture will be a unifying rather than a divisive force. And

even if black culture, properly understood and appreciated, would

R A CE, C U LTU R E , A ND P O LIT I CS 177

promote a greater sense of community, not all blacks will want

to realize the value of community through ethnoracial affiliation.

They may find it more appealing to attain the value of community

by means that are not based on race (for instance, through occupa­

tional groups or religious organizations), or they may consciously

seek interracial community.

We must also come to terms with the fact that the increasing

commercialization of c ulture, especially youth culture, has had a

profound effect on the meaning and content of black culture, in the

States and around the world.12 Symbolic blackness, partic ularly in

the form of ghetto outlaw images, is a tremendous source of profit

in the world market, exacerbating the already contentious debate

over what co nstitutes authentic black culture and what represents

cultural exploitation and "selling out." As Paul G ilroy puts it: "Black

culture iSBot just commodified but lends its special exotic allure to

the marketing of an ext raordinary range of commodities and ser­

vices that have no connection whatever to these cultural forms or to

the people who have developed them ."13

Furthermore, the cultures of the world are becoming increas­

ingly hybrid. To find favorable m arkets-for labor, goods, services,

or investment-people are perpetually on the move, migrating

when possible to where they are likely to acquire material advan­

tages or to avoid material disadvant age.1 4 Information networks

also distribute ideas, sounds, and images ac ross the globe in an in­

stant . Thus, cultures are inev itably changing, sometimes dramat i ­

cally and rapidly, because o f c ultural imposit ion, diffusion, em­

ulation, and fusion. Although the cultural bases of black social

ident it ies are not, and cannot be, stable, the velocity and scope of

global cultural exchange has made a vast array of cultural resources

readily available to blacks, especially t o those in the United States.

Blacks can th erefore const ruct their identities using c ultural mate­

rials drawn from diverse sources.

Of course, the availability of this broad array of c ultural re-

178 WE W H O A RE D A R K

sources will not guarantee that blacks will avoid social alienation,

existential angst, or identity crises. As D urkheim and Weber have

taught us, increasing anomie and meaninglessness are among the

unfortunate general consequences of modernity, and the struggle

to avoid being over come by them is indeed formidable. IS Yet, at ­

tempting to bring about or maintain a pr istine and homogeneous

black cultural community against the currents of globalization will

create, not integration and fulfillment, but r ather fr ustration and

disappointment. We should therefore avoid thinking of social es­

trangement and melancholia as somehow peculiarly black issues

that require a distinctive black response. These are no doubt serious

threats to our sense of belongingness and happiness, but they are

features of the human condition in t h e m odern world.

Some contend, however, that there is a peculiar threat to black

psychic health b est remedied by a wholehearted embrace of black

culture. This is the problem of internalized oppression, the so­

called black infer iority complex. The ideological attack on blacks

involves the devaluation not only of black cultures but also of the

intelligence, physical beauty, and moral char acter of black people.

At var ious times, blacks have been viewed as childlike, stupid, and

lazy, and thus in need of white pater n alism.16 At other times, blacks

have been depicted as wild, vicious, and impulsive, and therefor e in

need of being contained. Wor se yet , and this is the heart of the mat­

ter, these negat ive images have also seeped into the consciousness of

many blacks, often without their being awar e of it.

Part of the r emedy for this self-alienation is to b e found in

the strategies already mentioned: spreading accurate information

about black history and cultural forms; using var ious forms of cul­

tural expression to resist and subvert antiblack racism; and engag­

ing in the relentless critique of t h e doctr ine and practice of r acial

domination. However, there is more that can be done. Black people

can also bond together to collectively combat their racial oppres-

R A CE , C U L T U RE, A N D P O L I T I CS 179

sion. Indeed, the need to over come the self-contempt produced by

antiblack r acism is an important j ustification for black solidarity.17

Given the widespread internalization of antiblack race prejudice, it

becomes necessary for black people to be a significant, if not the

primar y, force behind t heir liberation fr om racial subordination. It

is not enough for black people to b e freed fr om their subordinate

position by their nonblack allies and sympathizer s . They must par ­

ticipate, i n a meaningful way, i n freeing themselves. The collect ive

str uggle for self-emancipation, even if unsuccessful, can itself en­

hance the participants' self-esteem and self-respect.

This was well understood by those blacks who volunt arily fought

in the Union Army war against the slaveholding Confederate States.

The same can b e said of those who walked miles to work in order to

boycott segregation on buses in Montgomery, who worked to regis­

ter black voters in violent Mississippi during Jim Crow, and who

marched through souther n towns in nonviolent protest for their

civil rights, often r isking mob violence, police brutality, and even

murder. Mor eover, fighting together to free themselves fr om racial

exclusion and domination is one way, in addition to the ones al­

ready mentioned, for blacks to strengthen their convict ion that the

doctr ine of white supremacy is a vicious lie.18 No doubt, blacks

should have a liberated consciousness, one that is as free as possible

from the devastat ing effects of racist ideology. However, in freeing

their minds from the grip of such degrading and essentialist images

of themselves, they don't need to, nor should they, replace these

repr esentations with another essentialized group identity, no mat­

ter how healthy or group-affirming some may think it to be.

There is a tendency among some black nationalists to exaggerate

the "problem" of black cultural homelessness. As suggested by the

quotation fr om G iovanni that opens this chapter, blacks r ightly feel

alienated by white r acism, but not all blacks feel out of place in or

ambivalent about white cultur e . In fact, although some are reluc-

180 WE W H O A RE D A R K

tant t o admit this, many blacks do n o t feel particularly a t home in

even the most revered black cultural spaces. For example, the tradi­

tions and modes of expr ession that are char acteristic of many black

churches are widely thought to be paradigmatically black. 19 There is

no reason, however, to assume that those committed to other faiths

or to no religion at all wil l find peace and security in black churches

simply because these institutions embody black c ul tural traditions.

Moreover, white and black cultures are not the only alterna­

tives. Some blacks may choose to identify with another ethnoracial

culture altogether ( for example, black P uerto Ricans who identify

culturally as Latino/a or black J ews who are c ommitted to Juda­

ism ) . Or some may simply opt for a more self-consciously hy­

brid ethnocultural identity, notwithstanding the ( unsubstantiated)

charge that such identities are incoherent and anomic.20 There is,

fu rthermor e, no need to accept every element of a c ulture. Those

components that are obnoxious, immoral, pathological, or other­

wise unappealing need not be embraced, r egardless of their puta­

tive racial origins. J ust as it is a m istake to assume that we must

choose between white and black cultures, it is also an error to as­

sume that we are faced with acc epting all or nothing from a cu�

tureY

Now, the cultural national ist may nevertheless insist that blacks

should feel more comfortable within black c ulture, notwithstand­

ing its dynamism, fuzzy boundaries, hybridity, and diverse roots.

But why should they? If the different cultures of the world are

learned a n d reproduced through socialization or acculturation, as

they surely are, rather than genetically predetermined, then no cul­

ture is more "natural" to a particular individual than any other.22

A person's comfort with a culture will depend on, among other

things, which cultur e ( s ) she was initially socialized into, which cul­

tures she has subsequently come in contact with, the freedom she

has to experiment with different ways of living, and her tempera­

ment. It will not depend solely, if at all, on what race she belongs to.

RACE, C U LTURE, A ND P O L I T I C S 1 8 1

Tools Are Tools

Tenet 5 maintains that black c ulture is an important emanc ipa­

tory tool, one that black artists and intellectuals should make use

of, perhaps exclusively, i n the collective struggle for freedom and

equality. Certainly cultural expression has an important role to play

in black liberation. One way to fight against the dissemination of

racist ideology is through cultural forms, such as literature, film,

music, theater, dance, humor, painting, sports, theology, speech,

dress, and hairstyle. Black people have a long and remarkable his­

tor y of using various c ultural practices, not only to express them­

selves aesthetically and spiritually, but to resist and subver t the

forms of r acial domination that oppress themY Insofar as the cul­

tural national ist's interest in expressive culture is expl icitly instru­

mental, the question for us is which cultural resources will make

effective weapons of resistance or vehicles for propaganda. But if

this is so, blacks should use the c ul tural resources that would ad­

vance black interests and discard or avoid whatever would impede

them, regardless of the ethnoracial pedigree of these resources. Cel­

ebrating the em ancipatory potential of black culture should not be

allowed to blind blacks to the instrumental val ue of ideas and prac­

tices that lack black origins.

There is, however, a more plausible version of this tenet. It holds

that white cultural forms are acceptable as tools in the struggle,

particularly among the black elite and middle class, but black polit­

ical mobilization requires black artists, c ultural critics, and intellec­

tuals to use fam iliar black cultural form s ( for instance, the idiom of

the black church and black popular music ) to inspire working-class

and poor blacks to progressive action. There are at least two ways to

defend such a view. The first assumes that many blacks regard white

culture with suspicion. Thus if black artists and intellectuals are to

energize and inform everyday black people, they will have to do so

with cultural tools that have greater l egitimacy among these fol k. If

182 W E W H O A R E D A R K

this assumption about working-class and poor blacks i s sound­

which by no means is obvious-then, on pragmatic grounds, it

may make sense for cultural elites seeking to start or energize a

mass movement to work within cultural idioms that are more to

the liking of most black people. Yet insofar as the intelligentsia want

to play a leadership role, they must be willing to challenge preju­

dices among blacks. False assumptions about white culture-or

black culture-must be questioned. Indeed, as Du Bois maintained,

such courage is a qualification for leadership, and it is one criterion

by which we can distinguish the true leader from the demagogue.

As Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West put it: " B eing a leader

does not necessarily mean being loved; loving one's community

means daring to risk estrangement and alienation from that very

community, in the short run, in order to break the cycle of poverty,

despair, and hopelessness that we are in, over the long run."24

According to a slightly different view-on e to which both Gates

and West seem sympathetic-white culture is not necessarily prob­

lematic fro m the standpoint of most black people, but it is unfamil­

iar or opaque to many working-class and poor blacks. If the black

intelligentsia are to get their message across to most black people,

they will therefore have to "speak their language"-that is, use a

cultural idiom that most black people can more readily understand.

Again, this m ay at times be pragmatically necessary. Yet, in account­

ing for this communication gap, we should not exaggerate the ex­

tent of black/white cultural differences. Blacks and whites have a lot

of experience interacting with each other, if not in common resi­

dential communities and schools (due to de facto segregation),

then certainly i n the workplace, marketplace, and public sphere.

Misunderstandings b etween members of the two groups certainly

happen. It must nevertheless be relatively rare that dialogue breaks

down because blacks fail to understand the cultural ways of white

folk.

Most importantly, we must b e careful not to confuse differences

R A C E . C U LT U R E . A N D P O L I T I C S 183

in cultural traditions with differences in education. What is some­ times regarded as "white culture" is simply that variant of post­ industrial, mass culture that prevails in the United States-that fa­

miliar set of standardized meanings, assumed common knowledge, and basic competencies that the vast majority of adult citizens must

master if they are to live minimally decent lives in liberal cap­ italist America. This common culture, which is largely transmitted

through educational institutions, allows citizens from diverse eth­

nic and class backgrounds to communicate with one another, coor­

dinate their actions, carry out commercial transactions, and con­

duct their common affairs. Because of substandard public schools

and unequal educational opportunity, far too many people and a disproportionate number of blacks have underdeveloped verbal

and cognitive skills, deficient knowledge of history and world cul­

tures, little familiarity with different political traditions, and low

reading levels. Rather than emphasize the need to recognize black cultural difference, then, it is more urgent for black progressives to

push for reforms in our failing public school system . This I take it is one of the insights that Du Bois wanted to convey with his Talented Tenth doctrine, though the point may have been obscured by his

vanguardism and cultural nationalist leanings (see Chapter 2 ) .

Some will b e made nervous, i f not put off, b y this emphasis on

educational problems over intercultural misunderstandings. They

will fear that it gives comfort to racists who disparage black cogni­

tive ability and who maintain that black underachievement is due

to the cultural pathology of blacks. Others will take it to be an ex­

pression of elitist contempt for the "uncultured masses." However, I

would not suggest for a moment that blacks are intellectually infe­

rior to whites, or that black expressive culture is any more an obsta­

cle to learning and educational achievement than any other such

culture. Nor do I think that educated blacks are inherently or cul­

turally superior to blacks with limited education. Rather, the point

is that the need for equal educational opportunity regardless of

184 WE W H O A R E D A R K

race-or gender, class, ability, national origin, and region-is a

pressing one and that the demand for such opportunity must be a

central component of any progressive black agenda. The first im­

pulse of the pragmatic nationalist must of course b e to defend

black humanity against insult. To do any less would show a lack of

self-respect, group pride, and commitment to defending the dignity

of the least advantaged i n the black population. But i f such solidar­

ity is not to b e merely symbolic o r, worse, reactionary, then it must

distinguish b etween the depredations of white cultural imperialism

and d ifferential educational opportunity. With educational reform

and, just as important and not unrelated, the expansion of eco­

nomic opportunities, there is no reason why blacks cannot main­

tain their cultural distinctiveness and yet develop the basic reper­

toire of skills and knowledge needed in a complex market society.

Such reform would constitute tangible black empowerment. Not

only would it equip black youth to compete i n a global economy,

but it would provide them with the skills and knowledge needed

to understand their world and the political measures needed to

change it for the better.

Ethnocentrism, Cultural Intol erance, and Race Prej udice

This leads us to tenet 6, which demands both state-sponsored pro­

tection of black culture from the forces of white cultural imperial­

ism and public recognition of the equal worth of black cultural

contributions. There might have been a time when such mea­

sures were justified, but they have little pertinence today. To see

why, first it is necessary, drawing on Oliver C. Cox, to distinguish

b etween ethnocentrism, cultural intolerance, and race prejudice.25

Ethnocentrism "is a social attitude which expresses a community of

feeling in any group-the 'we' feeling as over against the 'others."'26

This is simply a matter of group solidarity (see Chapter 2 ) , which is

not always expressed as "racial" unity. Such in-group sentiments

and partiality can be rooted in cultural traditions, religious prac-

RA CE, C U L T U R E , A ND P O L I T I C S 185

tices, national origins, shared experience, or common aspirations.

This group preference need not be antagonistic toward those out­

side the group, and both dominant and subordinate groups in a

stratified society can be, and typically are, ethnocentric. Yet it is

clear that ethnocentrism is often joined with hostility or prejudice

toward various out-groupsY

One such form of out-group hostility is cultural intolerance,

which Cox defines as "social displeasure or resentment against that

group which refuses to conform to the established practices and be­

liefs of the society."28 Here the dominant group is unwilling to tol­

erate, and thus actively suppresses, the culture of a subordinate

group because it regards these beliefs and practices as detrimental

to national solidarity or a danger to the dominant group's privi­

leged position.29 Whites would b e culturally intolerant toward

blacks, then, if they had negative attitudes toward blacks because

blacks refused to adopt the shared beliefs and practices of the white

majority and to abandon their distinctive cultural identity. Such in­

tolerance would yield were blacks to assimilate into or b e absorbed

by the dominant culture, leaving behind all traces of black culture.

Race prejudice, according to Cox, is based on somatic charac­

teristics. It is characterized by an emphasis on obvious, visible,

physical characteristics like skin color and hair type. In the case of

blacks, such traits carry the stigma of inferiority. Quite apart from

anything blacks believe or do, these physical characteristics com­

municate diminished social status. Cox rejected the use of the term

. racism to refer to race prejudice, for he feared that this usage (asso­

ciated as it was at the time of his writing with the Nazi "philosophy"

of racial antipathy) would mislead us into thinking of racial antag­

onism as merely a matter of dogma or rationalizations. Instead, he

insisted, it should be viewed as a materially based form of oppres­

sion that is facilitated by the social attitude of race prejudice. I think

the worry here is well founded. Yet if we conceive of racism as an

ideology that functions to stabilize systems of oppression, as I have

186 WE W H O A R E D A R K

urged (see Chapter 4 ) , this i n no way precludes the careful study of

the ideology's material basis-it invites it.3D Thus, I will continue to

speak below of race prejudice as a form of racism. Such prej udice is

not "instinctive" or "natural." The social significance attached to

relatively superficial bodily traits is the product of the spread and

solidification of racist ideology.

White racism should not b e confused with white cultural intol­

erance. In addition to being subject to race prejudice, those Native

American, Latino/a, Asian, Jewish, Hindu, or Muslim persons who

maintain their distinctive religious, ethnic, or national identities

are often unfairly disadvantaged in the United States by Anglo or

Christian cultural intolerance. As a condition of being fully recog­

nized as equal citizens, they are pressured to give up beliefs and

practices, often related to religion and language, that set them apart

fro m most whites. Being English-speaking Christians, the vast ma­

jority of native-born black Americans are not oppressed by cul­

tural intolerance, but by racism. African Americans are not cur­

rently subject to pressures to assimilate to the cultural ways of white

people-though obviously some of their African ancestors were.

Rather, because of race prejudice they are inhibited in their attempt

to assimilate and thereby are prevented from becoming equally val­

u e d citizens of the United States. Indeed, those black Americans

who have adopted the beliefs and practices of the dominant culture

nevertheless remain vulnerable to race prejudice.

Black "difference," where this has negative implications for the

life prospects and civic status of African Americans, has mainly to

do with a somatic profile that is associated with African origins and

that signifies inferior social status. If African American cultural dif­

ference is similarly stigmatized, which at times it surely has been

and to some extent still is, it is not primarily because of the qualita­

tive differences between blacks' beliefs and practices and that of

most whites but because African American culture is associated

with blacks. 3 l Indeed, the mere fact that other Americans readily

R A CE , C U LT U RE , A ND P O LIT I CS 187

adopt or consume the distinctive aspects of African American cul­

ture should enable us to see that it is not the intrinsic features

of black life that ground antiblack beliefs and attitudes. Neverthe­

less, the slightest perception of black cultural difference ( such as a

dropped -g in a gerund or a "be" where one would normally expect

an "is") can serve as a convenient excuse for antiblack prejudice in

an era when explicit expressions of racism are not generally toler­

ated.

Now, historically some whites have explicitly sought the degra­

dation of blacks by denying them access to education. Some whites

have also rebuffed attempts by blacks to take on what is regarded as

a white cultural identity. These were attempts to keep blacks "in

their place," subordinated to the white majority, not to absorb them

culturally. What is at issue here is not expressive culture but the cul­

tivation of a repertoire of economically and politically valuable

skills. To the extent that whites possess these skills and blacks do

not, black progress toward racial equality is impeded. The sad fact

is, some whites would b e quite content, some would be enthusias­

tic, if blacks were to insist on remaining "different," as this would

buttress white privilege and exacerbate black disadvantage in at

least three predictable ways. First, to the extent that blacks are suc­

cessfully portrayed as not meeting widely accepted standards for

college admission and employment, blacks would more easily b e

excluded from highly valued positions in society. Second, because

of their relative lack of educational and social capital, some blacks

would become or remain a cheap source of labor to b e discarded

when the economy is receding or when low-skilled laborers from

poor countries are recruited to do the same work for lower wages

and fewer benefits. And third, black economic disadvantage could

be rationalized by pointing to the inability or unwillingness of Afri­

can Americans to conform to mainstream norms.

Some black nationalists are not, however, primarily concerned

with cultural intolerance. Instead, their main demand is that black

188 W E W H O A R E D AR K

culture b e given public and equal "recognition." They justify their

position by pointing to the fact that nonblacks often regard black

culture with disdain or as inferior to other ethnoracial cultures. But

it is hard to imagine what legitimate steps blacks could take to ex­

tract the desired form of recognition fro m the state or their fellow

citizens. In a society that rightly treats freedom of expression as a

basic liberty, the only way to engender the wanted recognition is

through education a n d persuasion. The state could, and no doubt

should, require a curriculum in the public schools that includes the

teaching of the history and cultures of the society's diverse citi­

zenry.32 Yet if the root cause of contempt for black culture is not a

lack of knowledge of the culture but race prejudice, then such edu­

cational e fforts, while perhaps welcome on other grounds, are un­

likely to achieve the desired goal of equal public recognition.

The cultural nationalist could nevertheless demand that the state

impose sanctions on those who publicly express derogatory opin­

ions about black culture, thereby reducing the number of unfair or

ill-informed assaults o n the value of black culture that African

Americans must endure. But this, even were it justifiable and effec­

tively enforced, would b e insufficient. Such opinions, along with ex­

plicit expressions of racism, already receive widespread unofficial

public censure under the strictures of so-called political correct­

ness. Yet the shared sense among blacks that their culture is under­

appreciated or wrongly devalued remains. What must be acknowl­

edged here is that the desire for public recognition is not simply a

desire that nonblacks refrain from expressing their disdain for black

culture, but a desire that, as a matter of conviction, they actually

value black culture as having a worth equal to that of other ethno­

racial cultural contributions. This latter goal cannot be forcibly ex­

tracted fro m nonblacks through state action but must be achieved,

if it can be, through changing beliefs and attitudes-something

that cannot be accomplished without defeating racism and altering

the social conditions that sustain and encourage it.

RAC E , C U L T U RE, A N D P O L I T I CS 189

Perhaps the demand for recognition is not so much a matter of

getting whites to respect black culture as it is of making sure that

blacks do. In that case, the politics of recognition should b e under­

stood as a demand that the state grant certain black corporate bod­

ies authority over blacks for the purpose of perpetuating black cul­

ture. The government could, for example, require black children to

attend black-controlled schools where they will learn about black

history and culture from black teachers and from a black perspec­

tive. Here, "recognition" would entail two components: ( 1 ) compel­

ling black kids (at least those whose parents cannot afford private

instruction) to attend black schools, and ( 2 ) no, or very limited,

government regulation of the curricula, employment practices, and

the admissions and expulsion policies of such schools. But this pro­

posal faces the problems discussed in Chapter 3. To insure just

treatment of job applicants, employees, children, and parents

within this arrangement, blacks would need their own democratic

constitutional regime to regulate compulsory public education in

the black nation. Again, as I argued in Chapter 3, such a corporatist

regime is neither practical nor desirable.

Production, D istribution , and Rewards

Tenet 7 takes up the question of black exploitation. But rather than

concern itself with the exploitation of black labor as such, the com­

mercial rights thesis is concerned with the exploitation of black cul­

ture. Understanding the meaning of black cultural exploitation de­

pends on making sense of the idea of a culture belonging to black

people, understanding the way in which a culture is exclusively or

predominantly theirs, such that an exploiter can be said to have

wrongly appropriated and used it. We found that a cultural element

could be said to belong to the culture of black people if ( 1 ) the cul­

tural item is rooted in or derived from traditions initially developed

and commonly practiced (either in the past or presently) by black

people, and ( 2 ) blacks identify with each other as a distinct people,

190 WE W H O A RE D A R K

forming a ethnoracial community of descent. This makes cultural

possession a m atter of cultural provenance and the communal rela­

tions that exist b etween the originators of the culture and their de­

scendants.

Tenet 7 can then be broken down into three claims about the

primacy of blacks in relation to their culture. The first requires that

blacks be the primary producers of their culture. This does not nec­

essarily exclude nonblacks from participating in the culture; it only

requires that blacks be the predominant agents behind its repro­

duction a n d development. This is about cultural control or influ­

ence, not participation as such. It does not matter, in principle at

least, how many nonblacks participate in black culture or how few

blacks do, provided blacks retain primary control over how it is

practiced and extended. The point of this aspect of cultural auton­

omy is to preempt the threat of cultural distortion or erosion due to

nonblack involvement i n black practices. This threat has three main

sources.

The first and most obvious is antiblack race prejudice, which

leads some nonblacks, even some of good will, to view black cul­

tural practices as inferior. Such prejudice could lead some, perhaps

unconsciously, to want to change black culture so that it more

closely resembles what they take to be superior cultural forms­

that is, white modes of cultural expression. The second is the domi­

nance of white cultural practices. Given the greater cultural capital

of whites in relation to blacks-their greater capacity to appro­

priate (both symbolically and materially) so-called legitimate cul­

ture-what may start out as egalitarian cultural exchange or volun­

tary fusion m ay quickly turn into cultural dominationY The third,

and most controversial, is the alleged inability of n o nblacks to fully

appreciate the meaning of black culture because they lack the key to

unlocking its peculiar significance-namely, the black experience,

the experience of navigating a racialized and antiblack social world

in a b o dy that is indelibly marked as black. The p otentially corro-

R A C E , C U LT U RE , A N D P O LITICS 191

sive effects of antiblack sentiment, white cultural hegemony, and

systematic misunderstanding can b e contained, according to the

black cultural nationalist, if blacks have the power to monitor and

shape the ways in which their culture is reproduced and developed.

The second claim requires that blacks be the primary dissemina­

tors of their culture, which can be understood as their having pri­

mary control over the public and private circulation of the culture.

If we set aside questions about who profits from the diffusion of

black culture, the point of the present requirement would seem to

be to prevent cultural misrepresentation or perversion. But if blacks

maintain control over their cultural practices and nonblacks dis­

tribute only what is culturally inauthentic-a watered down ap­

propriation or pathetic imitation-then such items are not "really"

elements of black culture at all but merely some bastardization

thereof. Baraka expresses this thought with regard to the blues tra­

dition:

Blues as an autonomous music had been in a sense inviolable.

There was no clear way into it, i.e., its production, not its ap­

preciation, except as concomitant with what seems to me to

b e the peculiar social, cultural, economic, and emotional ex­

perience of a black man in America. The idea of a white blues

singer seems an even more violent contradiction of terms

than the idea of a middle-class blues singer. The materials of

blues were not available to the white American, even though

some strange circumstance might prompt him to look for

them. It was as if these materials were secret and obscure, and

blues a kind of ethno-historic rite as basic as blood.34

The worry expressed in the second subclaim of tenet 7 thus be­

comes this: the uninformed or naive will mistake the fake stuff for

the real thing, coming away with a distorted view of the value of the

original or failing to recognize its black origins altogether. Viewed

this way, the concern is less with distribution than with interpreta-

192 W E W H O A R E D A R K

tion and authentication, the proper province of tenet 8 , to b e dis­

cussed b elow.

The third claim focuses more directly on the question of cultural

exploitation, for it concerns who benefits from the production and

dissemination of black culture, especially who gains financially. It

demands that blacks be the primary beneficiaries of the production

and dissemination of their culture. To properly understand this

claim, it is important to distinguish between different ways that a

person or group might benefit from a culture. There are benefits

of intrinsic enjoyment or private consumption (use-valu e ) ; there

are benefits of esteem or prestige (status-value ) ; and there are the

financial benefits gained through the commercial use of the culture

( exchange-value) .

With respect to use-value, cultures should be shared, as Du Bois

preached over a century ago, a n d black culture, too, is to be experi­

enced and appreciated by all. Not even the most militant black cul­

tural nationalist would want blacks alone to enjoy the richness of

black cultural forms. In fact, many would argue that all peoples

would be better off if they adopted elements from black culture.

Separating the status-value of black culture fro m the money that is

to b e made fro m its commodification, the benefits of prestige are

derived from people's beliefs about the worth of the culture. Black

cultural nationalists want blacks to be esteemed because black cul­

tural contributions are regarded as valuable, and they want this ad­

miration to b e grounded in an accurate understanding of what is

distinctive and praiseworthy in the culture, not in superficial or

m i staken j u dgments about it. To the extent that black opinion is the

desired source of this esteem-that is to say, the mutual recognition

among blacks of the value of their shared cultural ways-blacks

could advance this goal by observing tenet 2: by their growing in

their knowledge, appreciation, and affirmation of black culture. To

the extent that nonblack opinion is the desired basis for such pres­

tige, realizing the program embodied i n tenet 8-blacks coming to

RAC E , C U LT U R E , A N D P O LITICS 193

be regarded as the foremost interpreters of the meaning and value

of black culture-would achieve this goal. Nonblacks would then

be obliged to defer to black judgment on the worth of a putative in­

stance of black cultural expression, thereby ensuring that those who

deserve the prestige associated with black culture are the only ones

to receive it. What is at stake in tenet 7 , then, is not who may le­

gitimately benefit from the use-value or status-value of black cul­

ture but who may legitimately gain pecuniary benefits from its

exchange-value.

We should also distinguish between the exploitation of black

(creative) labor and the exploitation of black culture. Though there

is considerable disagreement over what "exploitation" generally en­

tails, most people who have given serious thought to the matter

would agree that the labor of individuals, creative or otherwise,

should not b e economically exploited.35 The powerful should not

forcibly extract labor from those who are economically or other­

wise disadvantaged. This way of benefiting fro m the labor of others

is not only unfair but arguably an insult to human dignity. When

corporations use their monopoly over productive assets to compel

aspiring but economically desperate artists to work for them exclu­

sively, this is often exploitative. But the cultural nationalist who de­

fends tenet 7 wants to go further. He contends that when nonblacks

use black culture for financial profit, not only is the labor power of

black artists and performers exploited, but all black people are be­

ing exploited. The basis of this claim is that the traditions that en­

able these artists and performers to invent marketable, expressive

culture ultimately spring from black collective creativity, from a

long-standing tradition that has been reproduced and developed

over generations.

Now, even if we allow that black cultural traditions are a re­

source that belongs to blacks as a people, they are not a resource in

the same sense that land, oil, and other material assets are re­

sources. The commercial appropriation or adaptation of a cultural

194 WE W H O A R E D A R K

practice by another group i s not necessarily a financial loss to the

originators of the practice, even if the cultural interlopers fail to

share the profits with the originators. The commercial use of black

culture by nonblacks does not, in itself, preclude a similar use by

blacks. Blacks would be so precluded only if they were excluded

from acquiring the necessary productive assets, financial capital,

and means of distribution needed to profit from the use of their

culture. But here the issue would be economic inequality and class

subordination, not cultural self-determination per se.

In fact, the broader distribution of elements from black culture

by non black capitalists may actually increase the demand for them,

thus allowing blacks to gain more financially from their use than

they otherwise would. Consider, for example, the commercial suc­

cess of hip-hop music. Many rappers from the ghetto, given their

lack of access to capital, would not have been able to make millions

of dollars from record sales had corporate America not created a

global market for the genre. Moreover, this wide exploitation of

black culture has at times increased black access to the products of

their culture-for instance, the "race" records from the 1 920s made

the blues widely available in black America.36 Furthermore, some­

times taking up the cultural practices that originated with an ethnic

group that is not one's own can be a form of homage, a way of

acknowledging the value of the culture and paying tribute to its

founders. Such homage can be done with integrity and respect even

when it leads to financial gain for the outsiders.

Of course, one might worry that such use is often a misappropri­

ation. That is, it might degrade the value of black culture in the eyes

of others or it might not properly acknowledge the contributions of

its original creators. O r one might contend that such commercial

popularization has the effect of "diluting" the content and style of

black expression, rendering these commodified cultural products

inauthentic. However, these concerns, as we've said, are appropri­

ately considered under tenet 8, which addresses the question of

R A C E, CULTU R E , A ND P O LITICS 195

who has the authority to interpret, authenticate, and assess black culture.

The subject of all three components of tenet 7, then, is how

blacks acquire and retain control over their culture. It is not clear,

however, through what mechanisms blacks could gain and main­

tain the requisite kind of control. Complete exclusivity in the realm

of culture is simply impossible. There is no way to fully control the

flow of social meanings across time and space. No system of prop­

erty rights could prevent cultural diffusion across racial lines in our

modern high-tech world. Blacks might be able to prevent the U.S.

government from interfering with black culture-though, as I ar­

gued earlier, this is not a serious worry anyway-but it is hard to

see how they could keep global market forces from interfering with

its development, dissemination, and consumption. Capitalists, by

their very nature, are not patriots or nationalists but are driven by

profit, whatever its ethnoracial pedigree or geographical source. In­

deed, they must be primarily focused on profit or else their busi­

nesses would not survive. Given the exigencies of market competi­

tion, they must market their goods and operate their businesses in

whatever part of the globe that will allow their capital assets to

grow. Indeed, rnany successful capitalists have no intrinsic interest

in the qualitative features of their products and services but treat

anything that will return a profit as a commodity to be bought or

sold. The products of cultural expression are sometimes profitable

in their authentic form, even within the international market­

think of how some consumers make a fetish of so-called authentic

cuisine. But sometimes such products are more profitable when

they have been altered from their original form, perhaps beyond

recognition, to suit the tastes of consumers or the current vogue.

Black capitalists in the culture industry will be subject to the same

economic forces. There is little reason to expect, then, that they will

be committed to keeping the culture pure of degrading elements

when this would threaten the profitability of their enterprises.

196 W E W H O A R E D A R K

However, even supposing there were blacks who were able and

willing to exert this kind of control over the production and sale of

black culture, we still would need to know how this could be done

democratically. The capitalist system, to put it mildly, is not known

for fostering democratic decision-making in the economic realm,

and, as I discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, there are m any perils asso­

ciated with trusting the black bourgeois elite to represent the inter­

ests of the greater black community without some mechanism for

accountability. Ultimately, then, the plausibility of tenet 7 depends

on the soundness of the ideal of black group autonomy, either in its

national self- government formulations or its Black Power articula­

tions. But as we have seen, these forms of collective autonomy are

themselves beset with difficulties and dangers.

Mysteries of Blackness and Privileges of Wh iteness

Finally, we come to tenet 8, which demands that nonblacks defer to

blacks on the meaning and value of black cultural forms. This

clearly cannot mean that any nonblack person, no matter how

knowledgeable about black history and culture he or she is, must

defer to any black person, no matter how ignorant and misin­

formed he or she is. Thus we might interpret the tenet as holding

that a "true" or "deep" understanding of black culture requires the

interpreter to view it from the standpoint of the black experience,

where the requisite black consciousness entails actually being black.

The suggestion here is that a nonblack person can have only a

superficial comprehension of the meaning and worth of black cul­

ture. If nonblacks want to get at the profound core of black culture,

they will need to acquire it secondhand from those who are black.

Blacks get their access to black culture through direct experience, in

an unmediated form; whites get whatever access they do only infer­

entially, by analogical reasoning or black testimony.

It is true that participating in black culture as one who identifies

and is p ublicly regarded as black will likely feel experientially dif-

R A C E , C U L T U RE, A N D P O L I T I C S 197

ferent from the way it would if one were, say, white. But does the

black experience really provide one with privileged insight into the

meaning and value of black culture? Or, more plausibly, does it sim­

ply give one insight into the consciousness of black people, in par­

ticular into how they experience the culture? Of course, no one can

have direct and complete access to the consciousness of others.

Imagination, empathy, concerted attention, study, and dialogue can

all help bridge the gap, yet they cannot close it completely. And if

the point is to understand how black people experience their cul­

ture, then blacks have a kind of access to this knowledge that non­

blacks cannot, a kind of access that philosophers call first-person

authority. If, however, the point is to understand and appreciate the

culture of black people, a culture that could exist independently of

black interpreters (though not independently of the interpretations

of its participants) , then it is far from clear that being black is a nec­

essary or sufficient qualification.

The confusion here is twofold. First, there is a hasty generaliza­

tion from the fact of first-person authority-which concerns how

an individual relates to the contents of his or her own subjective

consciousness-to the claim that blacks have privileged access to

their collective consciousness. Here again we find the implicit posit­

ing of a black plural subject, in this case underwriting the idea of a

unique black experience that all blacks share. Although some rough

generalizations may be possible here, there is no reason to think

that blacks all experience their culture (or anything else, for that

matter) in the same way. Differences in gender, class, sexuality, age,

region, religion, values, political ideology, and many other things

will all affect an individual's experience. However, even if there were

something like a collective black experience, it would not follow

from the presumption of "first-person-plural" authority that blacks

thereby have privileged access to the meaning of black culture.37

The only way such authority could be justified is if we simply as­

sume that to (really) understand and (fully) appreciate black cul-

198 W E W H O A R E D A R K

ture is to do so from the "black point of view." But this is just to beg

the question, because the possibility of non blacks fully compre­

hending the richness of black culture (that is, as much as this is

possible for anyone) is precisely what is at issue.

It does seem plausible that being black gives one an advantage in

understanding black culture or, conversely, that not being black is a

handicap. Yet this is because blacks are often reluctant to accept

nonblacks into black practices as equal participants. Thus, to the

extent that blacks maintain some control over their cultural institu­

tions and restrict access to participation in them, it will be easier for

blacks to come to understand and evaluate black culture for the

simple reason that they have greater freedom to enjoy and learn

about it. Accordingly, a more tenable reading of tenet 8 is that a

black person's interpretation of some putative item from black cul­

ture is, all other things being equal, more authoritative than a white

person's. The justification would then be the access advantage that

is afforded by being a recognized member of the black community.

This principle of "insider advantage" is better from a theoretical

point of view but is of negligible practical significance. For while

there might be a justified prima facie presumption that a black per­

son's interpretation is to be given greater weight than a nonblack's,

further information about the relevant credentials of the parties to

an interpretive dispute could easily overturn this presumption. The

problem is that, once we acknowledge the relative advantages and

disadvantages of racial group membership for interpreting black

culture, things are rarely equal in all other relevant respects-such

as sociohistorical and cultural knowledge, active participation and

engagement, and aesthetic judgment and intellectual acumen. How

much weight should the black experience b e given vis-a-vis these

other relevant qualifications? I'm not sure. But whatever weight we

give it, it should not function as a trump. This means that we can

never rule out the possibility that some nonblack person will have

as much, if not more, standing as some black person to judge the

R A C E , C U L T U R E , A N D P O L I T I C S 199

meaning and value of a particular black cultural item or perfor­

mance.

I would like to close this chapter by raising a final worry about

tenets 7 and 8. The problem is that such arguments can be easily

turned around to restrict the access of blacks to so-called white cul­

ture and to question the standing of blacks to interpret and evalu­

ate nonblack modes of cultural expression. Should blacks be de­

nied the opportunity to participate in, disseminate, consume, profit

from, and assess white cultural ideas and practices? Because blacks

lack the "white experience"-the experience of living with the bod­

ily badge of whiteness and the privileges that this entails-does this

disqualify them as equal participants in white cultures? Such argu­

ments about the esoteric character of black cultural difference and

the fundamentally alien character of white culture could lead us

down this unfortunate path. Indeed, at a time when there is a black!

white educational achievement gap-which in the absence of af­

firmative action will inevitably produce racial inequities in access to

well-paying jobs-to suggest that there is some unbridgeable cul­

tural gap between blacks and whites is to play right into the hands

of those who would like to see blacks remain socially subordinate.

Moreover; those of us who believe that we have important and orig­

inal things to say both within and about the Western philosophi­

cal tradition should be especially concerned about the exaggerated

claims of black cultural nationalism.

The black struggle for social equality has traditionally included

the fight for each black individual to be viewed as an equal partici­

pant in the multicultural mix of America. This is a legacy of the

civil rights struggle that should earnestly be kept alive, for it ex­

presses a cosmopolitan ideal that is well worth striving for, though

no doubt utopian at the moment. But cultural nationalism is not a

suitable vehicle for bringing about this post-ethnoracial utopia, as

its basic tenets are plagued by a number of conceptual and norma­

tive difficulties. My alternative suggestion is that blacks focus their

200 W E W H O A RE D A R K

critical analyses and political activism o n lingering racism, persis­

tent forms of socioeconomic inequality, unequal educational op­

portunity, and racialized urban poverty, for it is these that give rise

to unflattering and disrespectful views of black people and thus of

the cultural forms associated with them.