Having It Both Ways

Race is without a doubt the political subject we Americans have talked about more than any other for over a decade now, and it is remarkable, to my mind, how little is thought out and freshly said on the whole murky matter. For one thing, we have been reluctant to admit that it is murky. A few years ago, the public ideal was the liberal one: the color-blind meritocratic society, egalitarian and (though only up to a point, it was tacitly assumed) integrated. That remains confusedly half-true, a state of affairs I hope to consider at more length very soon. For now, it is interesting to note that blacks enjoy a position of rhetorical privilege: they can have it both ways, indulging both racial pride and resentment against “racism.”

This is borne out by two sharply different magazines aimed at blacks, Ebony and Essence. Ebony is the old-timer, the one with the Life format. It might be described as a family magazine, though I know nothing about its real readership—I know of nobody who reads it, rarely see anyone buy it, and yet assume it has a fairly large and solid readership. (The only black man whose home I’ve visited lately had Time and Playboy only—no Ebony.) You might succinctly describe it as the “Negro” magazine, in that it came along in the first years of the civil rights movement’s real successes. But the word “Negro” seldom appears in its pages now. Ebony tries to keep up with the times, giving space to younger black celebrities, new black fads and styles, the angrier black rhetoric of today, as well as to Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Sr.

JS

About the Author

Joseph Sobran

Featured Tags

Race is without a doubt the political subject we Americans have talked about more than any other for over a decade now, and it is remarkable, to my mind, how little is thought out and freshly said on the whole murky matter. For one thing, we have been reluctant to admit that it is murky. A few years ago, the public ideal was the liberal one: the color-blind meritocratic society, egalitarian and (though only up to a point, it was tacitly assumed) integrated. That remains confusedly half-true, a state of affairs I hope to consider at more length very soon. For now, it is interesting to note that blacks enjoy a position of rhetorical privilege: they can have it both ways, indulging both racial pride and resentment against “racism.”

This is borne out by two sharply different magazines aimed at blacks, Ebony and Essence. Ebony is the old-timer, the one with the Life format. It might be described as a family magazine, though I know nothing about its real readership—I know of nobody who reads it, rarely see anyone buy it, and yet assume it has a fairly large and solid readership. (The only black man whose home I’ve visited lately had Time and Playboy only—no Ebony.) You might succinctly describe it as the “Negro” magazine, in that it came along in the first years of the civil rights movement’s real successes. But the word “Negro” seldom appears in its pages now. Ebony tries to keep up with the times, giving space to younger black celebrities, new black fads and styles, the angrier black rhetoric of today, as well as to Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Sr.