Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Race Matters


 Book: Race Matters
Basic Information : Synopsis : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References

Basic Information:

Author: Cornel West

Edition: ePub on Libby from the Los Angeles Public Library

Publisher: 1st Vintage Books

ISBN: 0679749861 (ISBN13: 9780679749868)

Start Date: June 30, 2021

Read Date: July 28, 2021

156 pages

Genre: Essay, Interracial Understanding

Language Warning: None

Rated Overall: 4 out of 5


Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):

This is a book of eight essays, with two prefaces, two introductions and one epilogue centered on the role of race in America. Particularly Blacks in America. The essays range from the outlook of Blacks to Black leadership to Black sexuality.


The book was written after the trial of the police officers who beat Rodney King in 1992. He is expressing his thoughts about not only how Blacks are treated, but even more so, the mental status of Blacks. This is particularly true in the first chapter where he talks about the despair of Blacks. He moans about the lack of prophetic Black leadership to bring Blacks out of this despondency.

He ends with a call of renewal to bring change to bring hope. To fulfill the words of equality.



Expectations:
  • Recommendation: Read the book Divided by Faith by Emerson and Smith. Referenced West’s book. Also in our OSHER classes, Dr Fiala references him extensively.
  • When: May 2021
  • Date Became Aware of Book: May 2021
  • Why do I want to read this book: Author is highly recommended.
  • What do I think I will get out of it?

Thoughts:

Have the situations changed since the early 1990’s? Yes and now. It seemed like in the 1990’s it was principally Blacks who went protesting and rioting. Recently there are whites also protesting. But the divide between the police and those who experience injustice is widening even as there is more awareness.


Preface 2001: Democracy Matters in Race Matters

BLACK people in the United States differ from all other modern people owing to the unprecedented levels of unregulated and unrestrained violence directed at them. I think this is a further development of thought after he wrote this book.


I wonder where West was raised? Tulsa OK. This may also explain the perspective that Blacks were taught to hate themselves.


West is concerned about class division and how there is economic disparity between various races. This is so primarily because the advent of the multiracial American regime coincided with escalating levels of wealth inequality. It is almost as if West is saying that as Blacks start to get more equality in life, there is more inequality economically. But is this true just for Blacks or is this true for all classes except upper?


Police power—disproportionately used against poor communities of color—requires just and fair regulation if it is not to be viewed as illegitimate and arbitrary. West makes this as a statement rather than supporting. Will he support this later on in his essays? This was written before George Floyd. Not sure about where the writings are in relation with Michael Brown.


West says that the increase in corporation power is driven by two reasons:

  • market activities of buying and selling, advertising and promoting weaken nonmarket activities of caring and sharing, nurturing and connecting
  • private aims trump public aspirations.

The major tragedy of black America in the past decade or so is the low quality of black leadership and the relative inattention to the deep crisis of black youth. This is something which West talks a lot about in the book. The quality of black leadership is lacking. There is not enough there to overcome the systemic, in-built hurdles in the system.



Preface 1993

References CONINTEL, an FBI program which targeted people whom Hoover did not like. Reading about it in a book by Medsger called The Burglary. She pointed out that the FBI went after Blacks particularly, especially those who showed leadership.


Referenced Rev Jeremy Wright of Chicago. He was the Obama’s pastor. This was in 1993 before Obama gained any prominence. This ay play into West’s concerns with Blacks and Jews. Wright talk about Jews is concerning how they are holding back Blacks.


Then West discusses with his wife about what race matters in both the American past and present. Interestingly he does not talk about the future.


West notes that to him race matters more in terms of who has power and what the morality of a situation is; to others who do not hold a position like his, it is a matter of life and death.


Race Matters in Twenty-First Century America

The nihilism in Black America has become a massive spiritual blackout in America. I am a bit confused. West starts with a general statement about it being a dark time in America. But then he narrows it down to Black people. And then the statement about which seems to be more general again. Is he saying that because of the condition of Black people, America is sliding into despair? Or just Blacks? I am not belittling the effects on Blacks by the word just, but more in the sense of what circle is West drawing?


I do agree that when we consider if we oppress one part of the population, eventually the whole will suffer.


We make our lies look like the normal order of things. And we make our crimes look like the normal order of things. It is easy to point post-Trump that this is what he did. But in reality, he is only the most extreme example of what West is saying. We grow accustomed to wrong when fed in small doses.


He makes the case for this: America was a business project before it became a democratic experiment. Slavery was in America to make money not to better the Black people.


Almost three decades since its uncontested claim of world-power status, America has followed the route of all empires in human history: machismo might, insecure hysteria, and predictable hubris. This really sounds more like West’s commentary on America than on racial conditions. The political triumph of Donald Trump is a symbol and symptom—not cause or origin—of our imperial meltdown. He goes on to say that It is too easy and shortsighted to blame Trump alone for American imperial decay and decline.


He definitely is on the progressive left side rather than moderate when you consider the political spectrum. But I was very surprised when he felt that Obama was more of a White in Black skin (my words not his). Obama was the brilliant Black smiling face of the American Empire. West felt Obama did not confront the moral questions America faces rather was more concerned with not tarnishing the images-his, Blacks and America.


The greatest tradition of prophetic fightback in the American Empire is the Black freedom struggle. West shows a particular bias in his outlook. He only sees the Black struggle. But what about other struggles or the white which also struggled? He also wants to see things only as the Black struggle for freedom without taking into account other struggles: The wholesale neoliberal attempt to sabotage and hijack the best of the Black freedom struggle and musical tradition is glaring.


Introduction: Race Matters

April of 1992 - the Los Angeles riot after the Rodney King police verdict was given


West pointed out that we remain trapped in the narrow framework of the dominant liberal and conservative views of race in America. This is a good point. We simplify our views to make them fit into our framework rather than letting the reality enlighten our minds to the reality. We tend to think in almost cliches.


The liberal notion that more government programs can solve racial problems is simplistic—precisely because it focuses solely on the economic dimension. Here he almost sounds like a conservative Christian. I think he is talking about an attitude as well as the morality which needs to lift up people. Yes the financial impact can bring up a person, but even a magnificent bridge such as the Golden Gate has to have sold footings or else it comes crashing down.


To engage in a serious discussion of race in America, we must begin not with the problems of black people but with the flaws of American society… West points out where you start attacking the problem determines what solutions you come up with. He points to the double standards on being moral. A Black makes anti-Semetic statements and they are condemned while a white’s statement is brushed aside.A white gets pulled over without a problem, while when a Black is pulled over by the police there is a good chance it will end in violence. whites have often failed to acknowledge the widespread mistreatment of black people, especially black men, by law enforcement agencies, which helped ignite the spark. Remember the context is Rodney King in 1992, not Micheal Brown in 2014 or George Floyd in 2020. We have not progressed very far. No wonder these cases have caused an eruption of concern and protest.


WHAT is to be done? That is the big question.West says:

  • First, we must admit that the most valuable sources for help, hope, and power consist of ourselves and our common history
  • Second, we must focus our attention on the public square—the common good that undergirds our national and global destinies
  • Last, the major challenge is to meet the need to generate new leadership

It is that last where West really presses throughout the book. (He does get side tracked a bit in places.)



1. Nihilism in Black America

This chapter to me is the most thoughtful. West lays down a basic issue with us.


Not a new word, just want to make sure that I have the proper definition: Nihilism-a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless, a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths. [This leads to despair and desperation and eventually doom.]


The differences between black folk and white folk are not blood or color, and the ties that bind us are deeper than those that separate us. The common road of hope which we all traveled has brought us into a stronger kinship than any words, laws, or legal claims. RICHARD WRIGHT, 12 Million Black Voices (1941) This was the lead in to the chapter:


RECENT [Recent as in the early 1990’s] discussions about the plight of African Americans—especially those at the bottom of the social ladder—tend to divide into two camps.

  • On the one hand, there are those who highlight the structural constraints on the life chances of black people. Tends to be more liberal thinking
  • On the other hand, there are those who stress the behavioral impediments on black upward mobility. Tends to be more conservative, particularly Evangelical Christian.

West thinks that these two ways of thinking do not sufficiently describe where we are at, at least in the early 1990’s. This is pretty much the current discussion today as well, almost 30 years later. Have we advanced any? What does West say? Unfortunately, these two camps have nearly suffocated the crucial debate that should be taking place about the prospects for black America. This debate must go far beyond the liberal and conservative positions in three fundamental ways.


  • First, we must acknowledge that structures and behavior are inseparable, that institutions and values go hand in hand. Positive changes in living conditions will result in positive changes in their lives.
  • Second, we should reject the idea that structures are primarily economic and political creatures—an idea that sees culture as an ephemeral set of behavioral attitudes and values. The culture surrounding people influences them as well. Sort of like, do we live in the ocean of water or air.
  • Third, and most important, we must delve into the depths where neither liberals nor conservatives dare to tread, namely, into the murky waters of despair and dread that now flood the streets of black America. The statistics are one aspect. But to face up to the monumental eclipse of hope, the unprecedented collapse of meaning, the incredible disregard for human (especially black) life and property in much of black America is something else. If you read one line out of this book, this is it.

West’s conclusion to these three things is: The liberal/conservative discussion conceals the most basic issue now facing black America: the nihilistic threat to its very existence.


The liberal structuralists fail to grapple with this threat for two reasons.

  • First, their focus on structural constraints relates almost exclusively to the economy and politics. They show no understanding of the structural character of culture. …. people, especially degraded and oppressed people, are also hungry for identity, meaning, and self-worth.
  • The second reason liberal structuralists overlook the nihilistic threat is a sheer failure of nerve. West sees that liberals do not want to talk about this aspect because it feeds into the conservative views. But without talking about the lack of hope, you are left with something dry and sterile, something not human, degrading Blacks and the rest of the culture we are in.


As for the conservative behaviorists, they not only misconstrue the nihilistic threat but inadvertently contribute to it. Conservatives are like Pharisees (my words, not his). They heap guilt within a framework which people cannot live within. Conservative behaviorists also discuss black culture as if acknowledging one’s obvious victimization by white supremacist practices (compounded by sexism and class condition) is taboo. My take on what West is saying is that conservatives would do something similar with a woman who has been raped: telling her she is at fault for getting raped. Blacks have been and are victimized. It does no good to say lift yourself up by your bootstraps, you are at fault.


THE proper starting point for the crucial debate about the prospects for black America is an examination of the nihilism that increasingly pervades black communities. Nihilism is to be understood here not as a philosophic doctrine that there are no rational grounds for legitimate standards or authority; it is, far more, the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness.


He goes on to say: I believe that two significant reasons why the threat is more powerful now than ever before are:

  • the saturation of market forces and market moralities in black life and
  • the present crisis in black leadership.

WHAT is to be done about this nihilistic threat? Here West sounds almost Christian: Nihilism is not overcome by arguments or analyses; it is tamed by love and care. Any disease of the soul must be conquered by a turning of one’s soul. This should be where the Church comes in. But where are we? Where am I?


A misc statement in the middle of all of this. Not saying it is not important, but it really sticks out as being a critique of all of American life. We live for this: The common denominator of these calculations and analyses is usually the provision, expansion, and intensification of pleasure



2. The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning

We have just gone through the hearings of Clarence Thomas for his Supreme Court seat, along with Anita Hill’s accusations.



He starts out this essay by saying most disturbing was the low level of political discussion in black America about these hearings—a crude discourse about race and gender that bespeaks a failure of nerve of black leadership. The situation which West is writing about is that with all the outrage about Thomas, there were not any Black voices talking about whether he was qualified. The very fact that no black leader could utter publicly that a black appointee for the Supreme Court was unqualified shows how captive they are to white racist stereotypes about black intellectual talent. I think what West is saying, Blacks were buying into the idea that Thomas was up there as a token Black. West asks, how did we get into this situation?

  • First, Thomas’s claim to racial authenticity
  • Second, the complex relation of this claim to racial authenticity to the increasing closing-ranks mentality in black America
  • Third, the way in which black nationalist sentiments promote and encourage black cultural conservatism, especially black patriarchal (and homophobic) power. West points out this is in conjunction that Blacks will close ranks against those who come against a fellow Black without evaluating the facts.

What is black authenticity? Who is really black? First, blackness has no meaning outside of a system of race-conscious people and practices. I do not understand what is being said by the line. Seems like on one side, West is saying there is no such thing as being Black. But later on in the paragraph he notes that it is a product of years of being subjugated. West concludes that however you slice it, this claim to authenticity has its roots in slavery and degradation.


In white America, cultural conservatism takes the form of a chronic racism, sexism, and homophobia. Hence, only certain kinds of black people deserve high positions, that is, those who accept the rules of the game played by white America. In black America, cultural conservatism takes the form of a inchoate xenophobia (e.g., against whites, Jews, and Asians), systemic sexism, and homophobia.


West thinks that Black leadership has several components: This new framework should be a prophetic one of moral reasoning with its fundamental ideas of a mature black identity, coalition strategy, and black cultural democracy. This prophetic voice is a framework encourages moral assessment of the variety of perspectives held by black people and selects those views based on black dignity and decency that eschew putting any group of people or culture on a pedestal or in the gutter. The conclusion is to replace a black cultural conservatism with a black cultural democracy: black cultural democracy rejects the pervasive patriarchy and homophobia in black American



3. The Crisis of Black Leadership

You don’t stick a knife in a man’s back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say you’re making progress. Malcolm X in a TV interview, March 1964. The rest of the quote on TV, but not in the book is: If you pull it all the way out that's not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven't even pulled the knife out much less heal the wound. They won't even admit the knife is there.

West says that the quantity of Black leaders has never been higher; but the quality is lacking.


Like any American group achieving contemporary middle-class station for the first time, black entree into the culture of consumption made status an obsession and addiction to stimulation a way of life. He notes that Black parents no longer sent their students to quality Black colleges, but to places like Harvard or Yale. Why? Better paying jobs rather than learning how to lead Blacks. One reason quality leadership is on the wane in black America is the gross deterioration of personal, familial, and communal relations among African Americans. He is not easy nor making excuses for Blacks. They have become just like other Americans wanting the same pleasures.


QUALITY leadership is neither the product of one great individual nor the result of odd historical accidents. Rather, it comes from deeply bred traditions and communities that shape and mold talented and gifted persons.


Sections include:

Black Political Leadership. He notes that in the 60’s, people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr wore suits as a means to say they are someone to reckon with. The 60’s, leaders were visibly angry. Now the relative lack of authentic anger and the relative absence of genuine humility. The latter is the fruit of inner security and wise maturity. West groups Black leadership into three types:

  • race-effacing managerial leaders,
  • race-identifying protest leaders, and
  • race-transcending prophetic leaders

Black Intellectual Leadership. He goes through the different ways in which Black Intellectuals do not exhibit leadership. Wonder where he puts himself as he is clearly one of these.

What is To Be Done?



4. Demystifying the New Black Conservatism

West discusses various Black intellectuals who are conservatives. He notes what they say and what they do not take into account. He also talks about where they correctly point out flaws in liberalism. But for the most part, most Blacks are not convinced by their fellow Blacks who are conservatives. The new black conservatives have had their most salutary effect on public discourse by highlighting the breakdown of the moral fabric in the country and especially in black working poor and very poor communities. But then they overlook the degree to which market forces of advanced capitalist processes thrive on sexual and military images.


West says that we indeed must criticize and condemn immoral acts of black people, but we must do so cognizant of the circumstances into which people are born and under which they live.


What then are we to make of the new black conservatives?

  • First, I would suggest that the narrowness of their viewpoints reflects the narrowness of the liberal perspective with which they are obsessed. In fact, a lack of broad vision and subtle analysis, and a refusal to acknowledge the crucial structural features of the black poor situation, characterizes both black liberals and conservatives.
  • Second, the emergence of the new black conservatives signifies a healthy development to the degree that it calls attention to the failures of black liberalism and thereby encourages black politicians and activists to entertain more progressive solutions to the larger problems of social injustice and class inequality. This is where West really wants to go-not be confined by liberal ideas and move on to progressive and/or socialism.



5. Beyond Affirmative Action: Equality and Identity

THE fundamental crisis in black America is twofold: too much poverty and too little self-love.


He goes through various programs which the middle-class takes for granted such as FHA loans. But then affirmative action comes along as a means to redistribute wealth, giving to have-nots, and there is an outcry.a redistributive measure in principle with no power and pressure behind it means no redistributive measure at all. The role of affirmative action is negative-to insure that women and people of color have opportunity instead of discrimination. As a note: while I was writing this up, there is an analysis of conventional home loans given out. The conclusions as reported by APNews is that people of color are still discriminated against.


Affirmative action is not the most important issue for black progress in America, but it is part of a redistributive chain that must be strengthened if we are to confront and eliminate black poverty.


IF the elimination of black poverty is a necessary condition of substantive black progress, then the affirmation of black humanity, especially among black people themselves, is a sufficient condition of such progress. This goes hand-in-hand with the thoughts in the first chapter on nihilism.

  • The first form of paralysis tends to yield a navel-gazing posture that conflates the identity crisis of the black middle class with the state of siege raging in black working-poor and very poor communities.
  • The second form of paralysis precludes any meaningful coalition with white progressives because of an undeniable white racist legacy of the modern Western world


6. On Black-Jewish Relations

I do not understand why he includes this chapter in the book. He talks about how there has always been mutual dislike (antiBlack, antiSematic) between Blacks and Jews.While there should have been mutual alliance to combat the prejudice of Christian America against both, they both engaged in skirmishes to not be the most disliked. There are two major issues where this is evident:

  • The first is the question of what constitutes the most effective means for black progress in America.
  • The second major area of contention concerns the meaning and practice of Zionism as embodied in the state of Israel.

According to West, neither side understands the fears and sufferings of the other. Each is concentrated on their own. What is at stake here is not simply black-Jewish relations, but, more importantly, the moral content of Jewish and black identities and of their political consequences. As both grew stronger in their political strength, they seemed to be competing rather than cooperating.

The question which West raises in resolving this conflict is: what being black or Jewish mean in ethical terms. This kind of reflection should not be so naive as to ignore group interest, but it should take us to a higher moral ground where serious discussions about democracy and justice determine how we define ourselves and our politics and help us formulate strategies and tactics to sidestep the traps of tribalism and chauvinism.


To West, The desperation that sometimes informs the antiracist struggle arises out of two conflicting historical forces: America’s historically weak will to racial justice and an all-inclusive moral vision of freedom and justice for all. This all-inclusiveness of freedom and justice for all is central to any striving to understand how any group feels they need to fight to be equal. What would this look like?


BLACK anti-Semitism rests on three basic pillars.

  • First, it is a species of anti-whitism. Jewish complicity in American racism—even though it is less extensive than the complicity of other white Americans—reinforces black perceptions that Jews are identical to any other group benefitting from white-skin privileges in racist America
  • Second, black anti-Semitism is a result of higher expectations some black folk have of Jews
  • Third, black anti-Semitism is a form of underdog resentment and envy, directed at another underdog who has “made it” in American society.

West notes that for the most part these are drastically overstated.


The best of black culture, as manifested, for example, in jazz or the prophetic black church, refuses to put whites or Jews on a pedestal or in the gutter. Good statement.


Without some redistribution of wealth and power, downward mobility and debilitating poverty will continue to drive people into desperate channels. He ends the chapter with this. It seems to be a bit out of place as he concentrates only on the betterment of Blacks, not on the relationship of Blacks and Jews. I am left wondering if he is saying if Blacks had a better level of living then they would not be as resentful of Jews.



7. Black Sexuality: The Taboo Subject

I get a bit of “I Am Black! I am the object of sexual desire! You whites are all jealous of me!” mentality here. He no longer says we are all alike as humans, we are all equal. But that Blacks have superior sexual resources. This is born out by his opening statement: Americans are obsessed with sex and fearful of black sexualitiy. Later on he says: White fear of black sexuality is a basic ingredient of white racism


Everyone knows it is virtually impossible to talk candidly about race without talking about sex. Really?


The major cultural impact of the 1960s was not to demystify black sexuality but rather to make black bodies more accessible to white bodies on an equal basis. I would have thought this would have been a minor offshoot of the general sex driven culture which bloomed out of the 60’s with the Civil Rights movement. But is West saying that this is the major accomplishment of the Civil Rights movement?


Whites who West said put an end to the white supremacist movement (Who are these people?):

Social scientists have long acknowledged that interracial sex and marriage is the most perceived source of white fear of black people. What social scientists? This is where some reference notes would have strengthened his essay. But West seems to just make this statement as “common” knowledge. It is not part of my knowledge base. Maybe if there was more detail it would help with my acceptance of his essay.


West’ conclusion seems to be that black people simply have an upper hand sexually over whites given the dominant myths in our society.


Black male sexuality differs from black female sexuality because black men have different self-images and strategies of acquiring power in the patriarchal structures of white America and black communities.


For most young black men, power is acquired by stylizing their bodies over space and time in such a way that their bodies reflect their uniqueness and provoke fear in others. If this is true, then Blacks have no reason to complain when they talk about whites moving to the other side of the street when approached by a Black. Isn’t this what they are trying to accomplish? Fear?



8. Malcolm X and Black Rage

MALCOLM X articulated black rage in a manner unprecedented in American history. West goes on and talks about the boiling urgency of Malcolm X’s message. Malcolm X was the prophet of black rage primarily because of his great love for black people.


He talks about Malcom X’s phrase psychic conversion. Evidently not an original phrase to Malcom X, but appropriated to the cause. A change of mind about how to view America-not as the home of the free and brave, but as a place of oppression. To throw off white values and to understand what Blacks value. He felt that Du Bois’s “double-consciousness” seems to lock black people into the quest for white approval and disappointment owing mainly to white racist assessment, whereas Malcolm X suggests that this tragic syndrome can be broken through psychic conversion. Malcolm X felt that Blacks need to self-love and have self-determination.


My point here is that a focus on the issues rightly targeted by black nationalists and an openness to the insights of black nationalists does not necessarily result in an acceptance of black nationalist ideology. West tried to move between the framework of what it takes to be a Black and the more radical out-of-the-system ways to make it happen. The reason? It is not the goals which West faults: black community, humanity, love, care, concern, and support. But more than if you go there through violent and disruptive means then the movement will end up turning on itself.


That which fundamentally motivates one still dictates the terms of what one thinks and does.


Malcolm X remained a devoted follower of Elijah Muhammad until 1964 partly because he believed the other major constructive channels of black rage in America—the black church and black music—were less effective in producing and sustaining psychic conversion than the Nation of Islam. West’s comment on why: for Malcolm, much of black religion and black music had misdirected black rage away from white racism and toward another world of heaven and sentimental romance.


West’s response to this is that the case of the church-based civil rights movement would seem to counter his charge that black Christianity serves as a sedative to put people to sleep rather than to ignite them to action. To West, Martin Luther King’s way of seeking change was to break the cycle of violence. Like Elijah Muhammad (and unlike Malcolm X), Martin Luther King, Jr., concluded that black rage was so destructive and self-destructive that without a broad moral vision and political organization, black rage would wreak havoc on black America. Later on West says One impulse behind his internationalization of the black freedom struggle in the United States was a deep pessimism about America’s will to racial justice, no matter how democratic America was or is.


Malcolm X wanted pure Blackness. This complex relation of cultural hybridity and critical sensibility (or jazz and democracy) raises interesting questions. This seems to indicate that he was either blind to the impact of other cultures or ways of doing things, or he had acceptance of it. I think I read somewhere that Malcolm X had also a mixture of backgrounds as well-but not certain. Malcolm X’s fear of cultural hybridity rests upon two political concerns: that cultural hybridity downplayed the vicious character of white supremacy and that cultural hybridity intimately linked the destinies of black and white people such that the possibility of black freedom was far-fetched.


West points out a flaw in the move towards Islam: This great prophet of black rage—with all his brilliance, courage, and conviction—remained blind to basic structures of domination based on class, gender, and sexual orientation in the Middle East




Epilogue

The precious notion of ordinary people living lives of decency and dignity—owing to their participation in the basic decision making in those fundamental institutions that affect their life chances—is difficult to sustain over space and time. Therefore, we need to work for the change, put the energy into democracy to continue on and to make it truly accessible to all. As the phrase says liberty and justice for all. It is that “all” is what is missing. The thought that we will all be treated equally is still an idea being worked towards.


What do we lack? What prevents this from happening? poverty and paranoia. This breeds distrust. Distrust of “official” agencies as well as distrust of each other. I do not think West is looking at utopia, but more as a leveling of the field. He is not looking for “the solution, but more approximate solutions. (He bills himself as a radical democrat. Note the democrat is not the party, but more an adherent to the principles of democracy.)


Interesting observation: Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be “white”—they would be only Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and others engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over resources and identity.


This is what West called Americans to do in the 1990’s and what I think he would agree to today: In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis.


... each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.




Evaluation:

 Dr Cornel West is in the news recently by leaving Harvard because “it has lost its way”. But that is not why I read this book. I have been on a mission to read books to help me gain understanding on Blacks and how they see American society. Race Matters does a good job of this. This book is a series of essays on things West feels should matter, particularly to Blacks. He is mostly talking to a Black audience, but it is good to listen in.


West describes the despondency (or nihilism as the term West uses). This essay is worth reading. Also his thoughts on the deficiency of Black leadership and how there is a need for the leadership to be prophetic, both in setting the moral and vision to those who are oppressed. He feels that Black conservatives or only partly right-they do not understand nor speak to Blacks on the street.


Two of the essays do not strike me as particularly useful for what I want to know: Black-Jewish relationships and Black sexuality. One may have been a hot-button item in the 90’s, but I do not think it helps me today. The other seems to be very arrogant and in places not very true. But these two essays can easily be skipped over if they do not interest you.


One big question is how do they stand up 25 years after being written? I think they do pretty well. We are still faced with many of the problems which were evident at the time of the Rodney King beating. West has a 25th edition introduction where he tries to update it-this is after Micheal Brown and before George Floyd. One jaring note is what he thinks of Barack Obama as President-you can read it either in my book blog or in his introduction.


 
Notes from my book group:

What issues does West identify in this book? How does he say they are to be addressed?


Reading this book 25-30 years later, does West’s analysis hold up? How have things changed? How have situations remained the same?

What disparities does West identify between Blacks and whites?


The title is Race Matters. Yet we hear that race is only a social construct. Explain the apparent contradiction between these two thoughts. Or why these thoughts are not contradictory.


West says in chapter 1 the advent of the multiracial American regime coincided with escalating levels of wealth inequality. Is this true just for Blacks or is this true for all classes except upper?


West says in his 21st Century introduction that The nihilism in Black America has become a massive spiritual blackout in America. Is West talking that because of the despair Blacks are facing there will be a general malaise? Or is he talking specifically about Blacks? How connected are whites to Blacks or other races?


Discuss his statement of: America was a business project before it became a democratic experiment.


What is the West’s analysis of liberal and conservative views. What does he say their strengths are? Weaknesses? Do you agree or disagree? What does West propose to supplement the weaknesses he perceives?


Nihilism is not overcome by arguments or analyses; it is tamed by love and care. Any disease of the soul must be conquered by a turning of one’s soul. How does love and care overcome nihilism? Is this something which agencies can provide? Is West saying this is more important than pulling a person out of poverty?


West talks about the reluctance of Black leaders to criticize the nomination of Thomas. Why were they reluctant? Is this a Black problem only?


What would effective Black leadership look like in West’s view? Do you agree? What does he mean when he talks about being prophetic?


In an echo of Malcom X, West says that The fundamental crisis in black America is twofold: too much poverty and too little self-love. Discuss each aspect of what he says is lacking. Is this a good analysis? Are there other components which need to be added to his conclusions?


What does he say about affirmative action? What is his rationale for his conclusions? Do you agree? On what basis should affirmative action programs stop being used?


In several places West talks about needing to address issues on higher moral grounds. What does he mean by this? On what basis does he think these need to be addressed?

 

 Why does Black sexuality enter the conversion West has? What does Black sexuality have to do with the rest of West’s subject matter? Do you think Black sexuality is a threat to whites? Do you think his statement: black people simply have an upper hand sexually over whites given the dominant myths in our society Is true?


Explain what Malcom X’s psychic conversion is. How is this different in thinking from Du Bois’s “double-consciousness”. What does Malcom X want Blacks to think? How does West fall into discussion?


West favors Martin Lurther King Jr’s style over Malcolm X’s. Why does West think King’s way of doing things will accomplish which Malcom X’s will not?


West talks about poverty, paranoia and distrust. How are they interrelated?


West says that he would accept an approximate solution. What does this look like? Why only an approximate rather than a perfect solution?



How do you want your life to change because you read this book?


Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.

Why the title of Race Matters?

Does this book work to advocate equality for all?

Did West’s Epilogue sum up his thinking adequately?

Everybook has a world view. Were you able to identify this book’s world view? What was it?

In what context was religion talked about in this book?

Was there anybody you would consider religious?

How did they show it?

Was the book overtly religious?

How did it affect the book's message?

Why do you think the author wrote this book?

What would you ask the author if you had a chance?

What “takeaways” did you have from this book?

What central ideas does the author present?

Are they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual, medical, or scientific

What evidence does the author use to support the book's ideas?

Is the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?

Does the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?

What implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?

Are these idea’s controversial?

To whom and why?

Are there solutions which the author presents?

Do they seem workable? Practicable?

How would you implement them?

Describe the culture talked about in the book.

How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?

What economic or political situations are described?

Does the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the arts, religious beliefs, language or food?

How did this book affect your view of the world?

Of how God is viewed?

What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?

Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?

What was memorable?



New Words:
  • Obdurate (2): stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action.
  • Atavistic (2): relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral.
  • Miscegenation (7): the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types.
  • Manichean (8): a major religion founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian prophet Mani, in the Sasanian Empire. Manichaeism taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness.
  • Amerindian (8): a member of one of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (used chiefly in anthropological and linguistic contexts).
  • Herrenvolk (8): the German nation as considered by the Nazis to be innately superior to others.
  • bell hooks (8): an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. The name "bell hooks" is borrowed from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks.
  • Mendacity (Preface): untruthfulness.

Book References:
  • The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison
  • Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics by Bell Hooks
  • Black Bourgeoisie by E. Franklin Frazier
  • Losing Ground by Charles Murray
  • Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
  • The Crisis and Abraham Cahan’s Jewish Daily Forward by W. E. B. Du Bois
  • Native Son by Richard Wright
  • Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
  • The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois
  • The Violent American Century by John W. Dower
  • Black Agenda Report by Glen Ford
  • Republic by Plato
Good Quotes:
  • First Line: BLACK people in the United States differ from all other modern people owing to the unprecedented levels of unregulated and unrestrained violence directed at them.
  • Last Line: each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.
  • We make our lies look like the normal order of things. And we make our crimes look like the normal order of things. Chp Race Matters in Twenty-First Century America
  • The differences between black folk and white folk are not blood or color, and the ties that bind us are deeper than those that separate us. The common road of hope which we all traveled has brought us into a stronger kinship than any words, laws, or legal claims. RICHARD WRIGHT, 12 Million Black Voices (1941)
  • Quality leadership is neither the product of one great individual nor the result of odd historical accidents. Rather, it comes from deeply bred traditions and communities that shape and mold talented and gifted persons. Chp 3. The Crisis of Black Leadership
  • Humility is the fruit of inner security and wise maturity. Chp 3. The Crisis of Black Leadership
  • That which fundamentally motivates one still dictates the terms of what one thinks and does. Chp 8. Malcolm X and Black Rage
  • The precious notion of ordinary people living lives of decency and dignity—owing to their participation in the basic decision making in those fundamental institutions that affect their life chances—is difficult to sustain over space and time. Chp Epilogue
Table of Contents:
  • Preface 2001: Democracy Matters in Race Matters
  • Preface 1993
  • Race Matters in Twenty-First Century America
  • Introduction: Race Matters
  • 1. Nihilism in Black America
  • 2. The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning
  • 3. The Crisis of Black Leadership
  • 4. Demystifying the New Black Conservatism
  • 5. Beyond Affirmative Action: Equality and Identity
  • 6. On Black-Jewish Relations
  • 7. Black Sexuality: The Taboo Subject
  • 8. Malcolm X and Black Rage
  • Epilogue

References:


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