() IJi II ionsl l' iews
HENRY LOUIS GA S, JR ..
erali m,
i ty on
out the
TA RITI NI> .tivi t Barbara Smith illuminat omethin
of the content of BI ck identity for many young people in a tory about
teach rwho taught John Steinb .k' "Th Grap of Wrath" and found
h ac tud nt uming that its chara ters were Black, too. Why?
B ause anyon wh uffered much ju t had to be BI k. Th
tudents'identity Bl cks was intrin ically tied to opprcs ion to .ocial
or oconomi marginality .•
But identitic never take. hapc in isolation, a point brought hom
a letter. A profes or at the J w i h Tbcologi al Seminary of America
wrote to me omeone who came of age in the early 60s, when "tl �
civil rights mov .rncnt captured the moral ima ination of the nation"
or much of it.
'All too many of
us continue to
regard caring and
critique as mutually
exclusive. '
"M a teenager in 1962," he related, "I remember the work that my
synagogue youth group engaged in to do our small part for the great
struggle that Black American had mounted. For us at that time there
was the sense that we were participating in the mo. t important religious
challenge of our age ...
"I think that in certain ignificant way my Jewish identity w�
Shaped by connection to the ivil rights movement-that 'seeking
justice' w� hat tradition demandedof me and thatthe'�eIVor of;
tho tim�\aJl wed me the ctumce to go beyo "my eIC'
e thought it hat he was teaching at the institute where
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Hesche! spent his career and that his daughter
went "to the Abraham Joshua He chel day chool in Manhattan, where
the ph to of Prot> or He chel marching with Dr. King should crvc
virtually as the emblem of the' .hool.'
THE ANECnOT � HELPED explai n to m what make Bla k
anti-Semitism inordinately di turbing to many Jewi h American' for
whom the Black struggle for racial justi c remains paradigmatic, help
ing to define who they are .
. It may be that orne Jew tend to overreact to Black anti-Scrniti m:
it may be that orne Blacks, adhering to a ort of ethnic divi ion of labor,
then tend tQ under-reacrto it.
It's at this point that political i 'sues internal to ourcommunitie come
into play, All too many of us continu to regard caring and critique as
mutuality exclusive. Nothin new here. The hi tory of African-Ameri
cans .is marked not alone by its noble demand for political tolerance.
from the larger society but also by its paradoxical tendency to censure
its own.
W.E.B. DuBoi was rebuked by the NAACP for his nationali m in
the 19 and then again for his sociali m later. Jame Baldwin and
Ralph Ellison were victim of the Black Arts Movement in the 60 •
while Martin Luther King, Jr. and Eartha Kitt were roundly condemned
for their early protests again t the Vietnam War. Amiri Baraka repudi
ated a whole slew of writers in the 6 for. ing too "assirnilationi i."
then invented a whole new canon of Black targets when he became a
.Marxi t a few years later.
Michele Wallace, Nt zakc Shangc and Alice Walker have been
called Black-male bashers and accused of alculated eomplicity with
white ra i ts. Not urpris ingly, many Black writers and intetl tuals
have been acutely aware of th hazard' of falling ut of favor with th
"thought" police, wheth r in whitef ce or Black,
TIl I R A ON to think that we ar movi ng into an era where
genuinely critical dialogue among African-American can m re readily
be upportbd. But there i till om way to o. There remains a tro�
temptation to di the me nger. 0 I mu. t hammer away at a til!
elusive truth.
Th obtiganons of Bla k i nt llectual arc not exhau ted by lcbra
ti n. Critique, too, can b a form of aring.
A tivi like Bell Hooks Michele Walla e or Marlon Ri g • who
publicly ail xi rh and homophobi in our mrnuruties, arc cnga red
not in ra e trcas n ut : orncthin mu h 10. r 0 dcvotiorr. Yet the
fa e r i tan : Why. hould � try to et our own ho C I n order when
there i 0 much at fault with th lar r 1 ty? May aw It'
where we hv .
So many African-Amcncaru p rndcr v hat th to arr �t
big try in ur v n mmunity vcn Cll\ th Y ontront r� 'Ial I �iu.'t'<':c m
the nati n. And they know th re ar pra man 0 id rations to h
weigh d. too. /'
. Hi torically, the di ou BI k writer' and intellc tual has us
looking over our houlders t any ima 'I nary white auditor, yet imulta
n u Iy hopm t t u h th Am n om r of n at time equally
imaginary Bla' k audience. The r '�ut� have ftcn 'en dl. appotntln .'
R prilllcd from Til ' � Y, rk TlIn '\
•
I
ianizauor», at the IOl'aJ level.
Like the "dry h n ,..," In lli' olu
nov '
()f!.!. I f/.ttHII1\ arr . llll1
TilE HR'I S'l EP III nlll\lll:!,11
a . .ornph: h this t: k 1:-' to VI1,!' ruu "
psornot loc II. tare, r '1on:.11 .ind nil
uuna] 11 .twor In!.! III '1:1 II)llt
rnovemcnt-, .md (lI.',Il1I/.IIl{)f1\
nd i n tht .... rmu.rl h,\\l()I"flll\l'
m .nt I uildmu." w c rnu t dcv 'lop
stru .tur '''' \\ hn.h (an 1<1 dilate til;
Il'1 u· .... s oj nctworkmu.
In th' not to dl:-' .In l'ulur',;1 f cl-
DR.
BE JA IN
CHAVIS
CIVIL
RIGHTS
JOU AL
o
In recent wee
occupied with di cus iun
State of Emergenc which 'XI�t<; f( r
the Black ma, scs in the .S. and the
ri i. of Bla k p Ii ti .al lcaderslup.
In thi re ard, I am forced to he 'd
the advice of the mythi al Afr: 'an
American fi ur Jun ebu Jabo
EW LE DEI��IIIP an .... "
from th pr )J'c ts. program. vtru "1
and movement \ lu '11 P -oplc iniu
ate to cop WI th 'nd over 'om the
pr I 'm I rl!-.I. that rcqun' r' olu-
ti n. '
H n t!. 10 my Jud 1 'm 'nt, \ hal I
mo I urg ntly nccucd 10 thIS P 'no J
i� to uild a rno em 'nl tor Hhrk
to
HARRIS
('0
Am 'nl'(\l1 l'ommul1ltl'� In 'V
I n 01 lilt C lU lry
Hllndl{,u-. of ommuntl'
RON
DANIELS
VANTAGE
POINT
\l,t1ch and J: np iw ' m nt (AAI
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IcIC (t'd at (.! If"� 71()·5747.