Books in Brief: The Rediscovery of Black Nationalism

The Rediscovery of Black Nationalism, by Theodore Draper (Viking, 211 pp. $5.95).

The Rediscovery of Black Nationalism is a precise book with an imprecise title. From the (generally white-sponsored) Back-to-Africa movements of Jefferson’s time to the hate-sodden irrationalities of the Panthers, black nationalism has been part of the American scene. Hence, it is hard to “rediscover” what, unfortunately, was never lost. Like most faiths, black nationalism functions best when slightly out of focus. As a fuzzy abstraction, it lends itself to all manner of slogan chanting and heavy emotional hoopla. But, whenever attempts are made to concretize and delineate it, black nationalism’s inherent contradictions stick out like guns on a campus. These contradictions naturally emanate from the basic false premise of racial collectivism— that men are not individuals, but bits of a big chromatic blob, held together by the mystique of pigmentation. Draper’s semiformal history bears this out, by studying the theoreticians of black nationalism— those who’ve attempted to put meat on the rickety bones of the idea. He shows how these theoreticians have gotten hopelessly hung up on “nations,” “colonies,” “enclaves,” etc., until the whole thing seemed lost in a web of esoteric confusion, salvaged only by the totalitarian fiats of contemporary nationalists and the twitching acquiescence of too many white liberals. It is symptomatic of the philosophical mess America is in today, that black nationalism is considered a viable alternative, not just by the nutburgers and the streetcorner Hitlers, but by congressmen and academicians. One of the most telling parts of the book, the penultimate chapter on Black Studies, almost transcends belief. From the white college presidents (who traded in their backbones for gelatinous tubes of guilt) to Negro teachers who call for such things as “black mathematics,” the sad spectacle of cowardice defaulting to ignorance is trenchantly displayed.

JK

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Jack D. Kirwan

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The Rediscovery of Black Nationalism, by Theodore Draper (Viking, 211 pp. $5.95).

The Rediscovery of Black Nationalism is a precise book with an imprecise title. From the (generally white-sponsored) Back-to-Africa movements of Jefferson’s time to the hate-sodden irrationalities of the Panthers, black nationalism has been part of the American scene. Hence, it is hard to “rediscover” what, unfortunately, was never lost. Like most faiths, black nationalism functions best when slightly out of focus. As a fuzzy abstraction, it lends itself to all manner of slogan chanting and heavy emotional hoopla. But, whenever attempts are made to concretize and delineate it, black nationalism’s inherent contradictions stick out like guns on a campus. These contradictions naturally emanate from the basic false premise of racial collectivism— that men are not individuals, but bits of a big chromatic blob, held together by the mystique of pigmentation. Draper’s semiformal history bears this out, by studying the theoreticians of black nationalism— those who’ve attempted to put meat on the rickety bones of the idea. He shows how these theoreticians have gotten hopelessly hung up on “nations,” “colonies,” “enclaves,” etc., until the whole thing seemed lost in a web of esoteric confusion, salvaged only by the totalitarian fiats of contemporary nationalists and the twitching acquiescence of too many white liberals. It is symptomatic of the philosophical mess America is in today, that black nationalism is considered a viable alternative, not just by the nutburgers and the streetcorner Hitlers, but by congressmen and academicians. One of the most telling parts of the book, the penultimate chapter on Black Studies, almost transcends belief. From the white college presidents (who traded in their backbones for gelatinous tubes of guilt) to Negro teachers who call for such things as “black mathematics,” the sad spectacle of cowardice defaulting to ignorance is trenchantly displayed.