Such scrutiny should be motivated by either self-pity nor self-satisfaction. Rather, “this self-inventory” should embody the sense of critique and resistance applicable to the black community, American society and Western civilization as a whole.
West, p. 13
Tagged: black intellectual RSS
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lanabroekaert
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bobreijnen
There simply have been no black literate intellectuals who have mastered their craft commensurate with the achievements of Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker or Rev. Manuel Scott — just as there are no black literate intellectuals today comparable to Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan or Rev. Gardner Taylor. This is not so because there have been or are no first-rate, black, literate intellectuals, but rather because without strong institutional channels to sustain traditions, great achievement is impossible.
Cornel West, The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual, p.306 -
jorisbrakkee
‘”What I mean to say,” Socrates continued, “is do you see a black man in the reflection or is the first thing you think, ‘that’s me in the glass’? There ain’t no black men and women, no African-Americans in this room, there’s just people with names and ages and features. [...] They dreamed up a cage for you an’ me an’ Vazquez on the corner an’ in doing that they dreamed up a cell for them too. We’re all locked away from each other and from ourselves talkin’ about I’m this an’ he’s that. But when we look in the mirror the cell come open. The lock break and all that bullshit goes straight out the door. [...] What I’m saying is that if someone ax me who I am, I tell ‘em Socrates Fortlow from Indiana. I don’t say a black man from Indiana. George W. Bush don’t say that he’s a white man from Texas.”‘ (p. 219-221) ‘”I know that someone dreamed up a prison for me and as long as I believe in his dream, and my nightmare, I ain’t nevah gonna be free. I might feel safe. I might feel like I know my four walls. But I will nevah be free until I wake up.” “So you sayin’ that being black, or believin’ you black is like some kind of security blanket?” William George asked. “Absolutely,” Socrates replied, “Being black is what explains everything to us – why we get love or don’t [...] Good or bad we got an explanation. But you know it was all made up in a dream they having right now. An’ it’s not just us baby. It’s Arabs and Jews, Christians and Buddhists, gays and straights, tall men and short ones. Some of ‘em get together and some run away. Black people, it seems to me, do both. We love ourselves and hate each other, we fight to the death for the number one spot in the white men’s dream and then we congratulate the winner.” “But, Socco,” Mustafa Ali said, “If there ain’t no black people really, and they ain’t no white people then how come you still usin’ them words?” “Because them words is still usin’ me, Brother Ali. They usin’ me like a mothahfuckah.”‘ (p. 221-222)
Walter Mosley – The Right Mistake -
maartje
“Black academic legitimation and placement also can result in black control over a portion of, or significant participation within, the larger white infrastructures for intellectual activity. This has not yet occurred on a broad scale. More black representation is needed on the editorial boardsd of significant journals so that more black intellectual presence is permitted. This process is much slower and has less visibility, yet, given the hegemony of the bourgeois model, it must be pursued by those so inclined.”(309)
West, Cornel. The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual.