Class Notes

by Reed, Adolph L.

• ISBN13: 9781565844827
• ISBN10: 1565844823
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-01
• Publisher: New Pr

Summary

Essays on labor and race from one of America's most provocative and insightful intellectuals. Adolph Reed, Jr. has earned a national reputation for his nuanced and often searing evaluations of American politics. In the nation's leading liberal journals, Reed advances an unapologetically leftist and antiracist view of American politics and culture. Reed begins this latest volume with a consideration of the theoretical and practical effect of the decline of the U.S. left over the last two decades. After considering the demoralized state of activist politics, he argues forcefully for a class-based political foundation for any progressive movement that can hope to succeed. Reed also writes with rare force and concreteness on the subject of race, discussing the morass of writing about the so-called underclass and looking frankly at relations between black men and women and between blacks and Jews. He examines the meaning of "race" itself, and the emergence and significance of the notion of "black public intellectuals."

Author Biography

Adolph Reed, Jr. is a professor of political science at the New School for Social Research.

Table of Contents

Preface	v
Introduction	vii
PART I--Issues in Black Public Life
Why Is There No Black Political Movement?	3	(7)
The Curse of ``Community''	10	(4)
Romancing Jim Crow	14	(11)
Have We Exhaled Yet?	25	(4)
We Were Framed	29	(4)
What Color Is Antisemitism?	33	(4)
The Rise of Louis Farrakhan	37	(24)
Triumph of the Tuskegee Will	61	(3)
Martyrs and False Populists	64	(7)
Tokens of the White Left	71	(6)
``What Are the Drums Saying, Booker?'': The Curious Role of the Black Public Intellectual	77	(16)
PART II--Equality & Ideology in American Politics
The Underclass Myth	93	(8)
Pimping Poverty, Then and Now	101	(8)
Liberals, I Do Despise	109	(4)
Kiss the Family Good-bye	113	(6)
A Polluted Debate	119	(5)
Nasty Habits	124	(4)
A Livable Wage	128	(5)
Token Equality	133	(6)
Skin Deep	139	(5)
The Content of Our Cardiovascular	144	(4)
Looking Backward	148	(19)
PART III--The Question of Practice
Posing As Politics	167	(4)
Ethnic Studies and Pluralist Politics	171	(9)
The Battle of Liberty Monument	180	(7)
Looking Back at Brown	187	(5)
Sectarians on the Prowl	192	(4)
``Fayettenam,'' 1969: Tales from a G.I. Coffeehouse	196	(7)
The Longer March	203	(4)
Building Solidarity	207