The “LoyaltyTrap”

SOME 15 or 20 years ago, a young black intellectual named Glenn C. Loury—who had risen from the South Side of Chicago to a professorship in economics at Harvard—came to the realization that (in his own italics) “only blacks can talk about what other blacks0 ‘should’ do, think, or value and expect to be sympathetically heard.” From this he concluded (still in his own italics) that “only blacks can effectively provide moral leadership for their people,” and that such leadership could only “come from within.”

Not only did Loury follow through on this realization in a steady stream of essays, reviews, and papers at academic conferences. He capped it with a ringing declaration of independence:

NP

About the Author

Norman Podhoretz

SOME 15 or 20 years ago, a young black intellectual named Glenn C. Loury—who had risen from the South Side of Chicago to a professorship in economics at Harvard—came to the realization that (in his own italics) “only blacks can talk about what other blacks0 ‘should’ do, think, or value and expect to be sympathetically heard.” From this he concluded (still in his own italics) that “only blacks can effectively provide moral leadership for their people,” and that such leadership could only “come from within.”

Not only did Loury follow through on this realization in a steady stream of essays, reviews, and papers at academic conferences. He capped it with a ringing declaration of independence: